Youth game now under investigation

Bryce Alderton

Jr. All-American Football leaders are investigating an altercation

that left at least two people injured following a championship game

Saturday night at Gardena High.

One Newport parent and another spectator suffered injuries as fans

and the 12- and 13-year-old players on the Newport-Mesa Jr. Midget

Seahawks and the Norwalk-Santa Fe Springs Saints exited the field,

using the one stairway that led to the parking lot.

The Seahawks had defeated the Saints, 29-27, in the Orange County

championship game to remain undefeated at 10-0 this season.

Jim McGee, president of Newport-Mesa Jr. All-American Football,

has begun collecting accounts of the incident to identify the

perpetrators and is working with officials from Norwalk.

“We are trying to gather as much information as possible from

people to present to a detective,” said McGee, who did not attend the

game. “Hopefully, someone will come forward with a video tape.”

Les Barkley, Newport’s team administrator who witnessed the

incident, said a Newport player along with his mother, father, and

4-year-old brother, became trapped against a fence. The player had to

leap over a fence to get to the car, Barkley, said. The father was

reportedly hit.

“There was only one way out because all the other gates were

locked and it was a poorly lighted area,” Barkley said. “People were

confused and just trying to get to their cars. There was only one

security guard and he was telling kids don’t go near a certain

group.”

One woman was reportedly hit in the head with a video camera, said

Sgt. Jose Rios, of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Police

Department.

Attempts to contact Norwalk representatives were unsuccessful.

Two officers from the district police arrived five minutes after

receiving a call from Gardena Police at 7:45 p.m. Gardena High is not

in Gardena Police’s jurisdiction. The Los Angeles Police Department

Harbor Division’s boundaries include Gardena High, but no report was

made about an incident at Gardena High that night, Sgt. Gary Bean

said.

“The LAPD and [LAUSD Police] will work together on an off-duty

basis, but there was no staff from our end [at Gardena] that I am

aware of,” Bean said.

No arrests have been made and no one was taken to the hospital,

Rios said.

Newport Coach Brent Melbon was speaking with another Jr.

All-American official on the field when the incident occurred.

Melbon could sense emotions were rising as the game wore on.

“We played [Norwalk] twice and both times they were cheap with the

hitting and did some extra grabbing and twisting,” Melbon said.

About 1,000 fans attended Saturday’s game, Barkley said.

“It was a scary situation,” Barkley said. “It detracted from an

amazing game.”

Newport faces the South County Patriots in the Super Bowl at 5:15

p.m. Saturday at Rowland Heights High.

* BRYCE ALDERTON is a sports reporter for the Daily Pilot. He can

be reached at (949) 574-4222 or by e-mail at

bryce.alderton@latimes.com.