A viral video showing police being called to a youth soccer game near Orlando, Florida, is causing a lot of anger online. Some people say the cops showed up because a 3-year-old kid was playing too well, but the league’s director claims the parents were acting disruptive.
“Nobody argues that 3-year-old Nevada, who appears in multiple videos playing way better than kids who are one or two years older than him, is an amazing young soccer player. Even Thomas Hayes, who runs the youth league Nevada was in, told the police when they got there, “The kid is very good … He’s great. Really good.”
“He’s way more advanced than the other kids. He’s scoring tons of goals, but he’s pushing the kids and scoring,” Hayes said in the police body camera footage. Hayes explained he’s told the kids not to push during games, and that Nevada’s parents had caused problems a few weeks before when he moved some players around, including Nevada.
“They don’t like that,” he said.
He told police that Nevada’s parents got upset when he told the refs to stop letting their son push other kids, saying they made “a huge scene, arguing with other parents.”
Nevada’s mom told a completely different story.
In the body camera video, she says they always stand on the opposite side of the field from the other parents so they don’t cause any trouble.
“They’re basically kicking him out because he’s good at soccer,” she told the police.
In a video of what happened that the family recorded, Nevada’s dad can be heard saying, “They called the police on a 3-year-old because he’s too good.”
Nevada’s mother told CBS News that the coach said Nevada could play in his most recent game if he passed the ball more, but halfway through, the police showed up. She said in the bodycam video that she watched the other parents stand in a circle talking about him while the game was going on.
When talking to media person Lauren Lorosa, Nevada’s mom explained, “My son already has his clothes on. I don’t know how to tell my 3-year-old that he can’t play today when he’s doing so well.”
Hayes mentioned he wanted the family to go, and he said he could give them their money back.
On social media, Nevada and his family got tons of support, including from YouTube personality Rachel Accurso, known as Ms. Rachel. She left a comment on a post about what happened, saying she’d be happy to have Nevada appear on her show.
Not everyone agreed though. One coach posted, “These parents should feel embarrassed.”
The sports league, i9 Sports, shared on Facebook that they were “aware of the concerns people are talking about regarding an incident at one of our local i9 Sports programs, and we take these concerns seriously.”
“We really care about treating every child and family with respect and making sure they’re okay,” the post said. “We’re trying to figure out what actually happened and won’t guess or share information we can’t verify.”
Source: CBS News