Report: Girl choked by adult in soccer fight

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

A New Mexico youth soccer league is investigating a teen soccer game where racial tensions erupted into a chaotic brawl in which a parent is accused of physically assaulting one of the female players.

The Duke City Soccer League confirmed Tuesday it’s looking into reports that a man choked and groped a 15-year-old player during a match Saturday at a suburban soccer complex.

Ana Garcia, the coach of Alameda 99, a team made up of mostly Hispanic teens, said the melee began after her players were taunted during a close game with Rio Galaxy, one of the area’s elite soccer clubs.

“All throughout the game, the parents were calling the players things like ‘dirty Mexicans,’ and other stuff I can’t even repeat,” Garcia said.

Rio Galaxy coach Steve Kokulis said he didn’t hear any racial slurs directed at the Alameda team from parents but his players reported to him that their opponents used anti-white epithets.

With the game tied, a melee broke out after an Alameda player pushed a Rio Galaxy player and two Rio Galaxy players jumped the Alameda girl, Garcia said.

Video of the fight submitted to the league shows two Rio Galaxy players attacking the Alameda player and both teams jumping into a pile to fight or attempt to break up the fight before a parent is seen running onto the field.

It is illegal in New Mexico for parents to run onto the field during a youth sports event, said Luis Robles, a lawyer who heads Duke City Soccer League’s disciplinary department.

Staff/Wire Report