Flag football league drops complaint against rival

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A youth flag-football league is dropping a complaint against a rival league in Canfield.

Bruce Broyles, attorney for the Youngstown Youth Flag Football Association, said in an email late Tuesday afternoon he has been instructed to drop a complaint against the Northeast Ohio Flag Football Association and its head, Peter Raptis.

Broyles said in the email the leaders of the YYFFA decided to drop the complaint because they did not want their dispute to disrupt an opportunity for the children who play in the NEOFFA to play flag football.

The YYFAA filed suit against Raptis and the NEOFFA last week. The complaint claimed that Raptis coached in the YYFFA last year and signed an agreement not to operate a rival league within 100 miles of Youngstown for at least three years and to not disclose YYFFA trade practices.

The complaint said Raptis launched the NEOFFA in December in Canfield, and the league started the first week of its season this past Saturday.

The YYFFA had asked for a temporary injunction, but that request was denied by Magistrate Dennis Sarisky in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Sarisky was to have a hearing on a preliminary injunction today, but that hearing is now canceled.