and DAVE HAMRICK

[email protected]

One local youth basketball

coach is awaiting a decision on whether he'll be banned from coaching,

and another is awaiting a hearing on complaints filed by a local parent.

Formal complaints lodged against

Jerry Sweeney and Mike Barfield could result in revocation of their certification

as members of the National Youth Sports Coaches Association, which would

mean they could never coach in an NYSCA sport again. A panel investigating

the allegations could also choose to take no action, issue a warning or

suspend the coaches.

The panel heard the charges

against Sweeney last week. A hearing for Barfield will likely take place

April 24 or 26 depending on when Barfield is available, said Anita Godbee,

director of the local NYSCA chapter.

Barfield is also the head basketball

coach at Flat Rock Middle School, where he is a math teacher.

Sweeney and Barfield coached

the same 7- and 8-year-old youth basketball team this year until an altercation

both had with a referee after a game in February. The dispute ended with

Sweeney being cut by a knife that was allegedly wielded by the referee,

who was later arrested and charged with aggravated assault.

One written complaint was filed

against Sweeney in an incident unrelated to the knifing, accusing him

of engaging in a shouting match with a parent during a game in January,

said Godbee.

At least two written complaints

have been filed against Barfield, Godbee confirmed, but she wouldn't specify

how many complaints have been received and she wouldn't divulge the nature

of those complaints.

They all involve "violations

of the NYSCA code of conduct," Godbee said.

In his hearing Thursday evening,

Sweeney claimed that Susan Glore, mother of a player on the opposing team

the night of the incident, was mistaken when she said that Sweeney had

shouted back and forth with another parent on her son's team before the

two went to center court to continue the argument while the game continued

around them.

The two kept yelling things

like "Outside ... I'll see you outside," Glore told the panel.

"And then they didn't have the decency to actually go outside,"

she added.

Glore got between the two and

broke up the confrontation, she said.

Sweeney admitted that he was

the one standing toe to toe with the parent, but said he only got involved

in the altercation to try and calm the parent down, asking to go outside

not so the two could fight, but simply so the children could go on playing

the game.

He said that Barfield was the

one yelling back and forth with the parent from the bench before the parent

came running onto the court.

"It wasn't a situation

where anybody wanted to hurt anybody," he told the panel. "He's

a nice fellow," he said of the parent involved. "It just got

out of hand."

"I was trying to get him

to settle down until after the game was over," said Sweeney.

Sweeney received support from

several parents and grandparents of children on his teams.

"I have never seen him

in any role other than as peacemaker," said Kelly Haynie, whose 13-year-old

son has played on a baseball team coached by Sweeney.

Becky Peters said he grandson

has played on three different teams that Sweeney coached. "I've found

him to be a wonderful coach," she said. "He's so fair with our

boys."

Chuck Repine said he son also

is on a Sweeney-coached team. "He is 100 percent behind the children,"

said Repine.

And Larry Mead, saying he has

coached in the league for about five years himself, said he has never

seen Sweeney get out of hand. "He's a peacemaker. It's only natural

for him to try to step in and fix the situation," he said.

Sweeney will be notified by

mail within 30 days of the panel's decision. The coaches can appeal the

decision to the national NYSCA office if necessary.

The last time the local NYSCA

chapter conducted an investigation was about seven years ago when it revoked

the certification of a coach for punching the father of a referee after

a game, Godbee said. Any written complaint given to the local NYSCA must

be investigated, she added.