Coach enters guilty plea

By Jeanne Starmack

An assistant prosecutor said he might not have filed any charges if he’d had all the witness statements.

NEWTON FALLS — A Campbell coach who was accused of punching a boy during an eighth-grade football game in October pleaded guilty Tuesday to disorderly conduct.

Michael Mascola, 23, of Struthers, had been charged with simple assault. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge during a pre-trial hearing at Newton Falls municipal court.

Newton Falls Assistant Prosecutor David Lake, who handled the case, said he amended the charge. He said that if he had seen all the witness statements, “I probably wouldn’t have filed any charges.”

Lake said that witness accounts pointed to Mascola’s trying to break up a fight between players on the sidelines.

Lake said he approved the assault charge, which was filed in November.

“I was told this kid was punched,” he said. “But the coach was trying to break up the fight and grabbed him by the face mask and pulled him off the pile.”

The fight was about a late hit supposedly made by a Campbell player on a Newton Falls player.

Lake said it’s a “good question” as to why Mascola was charged at all.

“Why charge him with anything? I guess because his lawyer agreed to it,” Lake said.

“The treatment of the boy was maybe a little harsher than it should have been,” he added.

Thomas Robey, superintendent of Campbell schools, said he was aware Masocla’s pretrial hearing was Tuesday, but he was not aware of the plea and he wouldn’t comment on it. He said the school board would take the situation under advisement.

Mascola could not be reached to comment.