Two Southern California youth football teams have been expelled from their league for the remainder of the season after police were called to quell a fan brawl during a game at Otay Ranch High last Saturday night.

Representatives of the Otay Ranch Broncos and Inland Empire Ducks said they have been removed from the 14-and-under “Midget” division of the San Diego Youth Football & Cheer league, which includes 18 teams from San Diego and Riverside counties. SDYFC commissioner Cathy Luna did not return several email and phone messages, but prior results of both teams this year – the 14U Ducks and the 14U Otay Ranch-White – have been erased on the league’s website and neither appears on the schedule for the final three weeks of the regular season.

Otay Ranch parents have retained an attorney as well as engaged the San Diego chapter of the National Action Network in an effort to reverse the league’s decision. They held a rally Wednesday at Cottonwood Park in Chula Vista, holding up signs saying: “Let the boys play.”

“The parents want due process and justice,” said Rev. Shane Harris, president of the local chapter of NAN. “The kids had nothing to do with this. The parents want to see the kids get back on the field and back in the league. That’s why they intend to proceed with a civil lawsuit.”


Art Lopez, president of the Inland Empire Ducks that play home games in Corona, confirmed their first-place 14U team had been expelled from the league but declined further comment.

The Ducks are among the nation’s top youth football programs, regularly sending players to Southern California high schools and onto college. The National Prep and Youth Football Association rank the Ducks No. 1 in the state in the 14-and-under division (players could not turn 15 before Aug. 1); Otay Ranch is ranked fourth.

Both teams were also considered favorites to reach the American Youth Football national championships in Florida in December.

Parent interaction became so heated Saturday that the game was momentarily halted in the second quarter and fans from each team were instructed to sit at opposite ends of the cement bleachers at Otay Ranch High. The orders came from Luna, the league commissioner who attended the game.


“Refs, refs, referees, we need the game to be stopped,” the public address announcer told the crowd of a few hundred. “Referees, the game will need to be stopped until we get the OK from the commissioner Cathy Luna to continue. Parents, we are about to shut the game down if you don’t separate.

“Otay parents, please come to the south side of the stadium. Ducks parents, please go to the north side of the stadium. These are directions from the commissioner, Cathy Luna. We need to all abide. She’s given us two minutes to separate and settle down. If not, the game will be stopped.”

A few Otay Ranch fans appeared to remain in the designated Inland Empire seating area, and cell-phone videos indicate the brawl began when Ducks fans told Broncos fans to move as the final seconds ticked off in a 46-0 Inland Empire win that has since been declared a forfeit for both teams. An Otay Ranch fan stood up, turned to the Inland Empire fans behind him and said: “What you going to do, homie?”

Videos show the fight spreading to numerous fans up and down the concrete bleachers. Some combatants climbed over a chain-link fence onto the field while the players shook hands.


“Please stop fighting, please stop fighting,” the public address announcer can be heard saying. “This is for the children.”

(Here’s a video of the fight posted on YouTube. Warning: explicit language.)

Lt. Phil Collum from the Chula Vista Police Department said they received a 911 call at 7:28 p.m. and responded with 10 officers, but no arrests were made.

“When (officers) got there, what they basically found was there was a large fight that allegedly, according to what we were hearing, may have started with two people and spilled into multiple, multiple people,” Collum said. “The fight was over by that point. Nobody, as best we could determine, was injured. We were not able to locate any victims of any crimes, nor anybody who claimed to be a victim of any crimes.”


Collum said police are reviewing videos of the incident to determine whether to investigate further.

Last October in Renton, Wash., a similar fight in the stands during a youth football game with 9- and 10-year-olds resulted in both teams being banned from the playoffs. The Boys and Girls Club of Bellevue, which runs that league and suspended the teams, issued a statement saying it refuses to “put safety and sportsmanship in a second position behind a football record.”