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WPIAL Decides Against Actions For Monaca Football Incident

Posted: 4:00 pm EDT October 13, 2009Updated: 6:37 pm EDT October 19, 2009

A board meeting Monday investigated a rowdy football fight that ended with a parent getting tasered.

The governing WPIAL board said there would be no further official actions taken against the parent or referee involved in the incident.

“Sometimes you’ll find that there are schools with traffic records that some things might occur,” said WPIAL Executive Director Tim O’Malley. “This isn’t the case and this is the first time occurrence, and an unfortunate one. Again, it was the board’s opinion this is the information that we had before us today. There was not a need to bring anybody in.”

Angry parents vented during last Monday night’s Monaca Borough Council meeting.

Friday night football took a violent turn at Monaca's home field after a player’s father, Tom Phillips, 38, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a referee.

Some witnesses who Channel 11 talked to have a different account. They said the ref was arguing with many people in the crowd and then attacked the fan.

But according to the criminal complaint, police said Phillips placed his hands on the sports official, and there was a struggle on the ground.

A police officer got involved and attempted to take Phillips into custody. Police said they had to use a Taser to do so.

Parents said they are going to petition to have the referee removed.

The WPIAL plans to hold a meeting on Monday to determine if a hearing is needed to investigate the referee’s actions.

At this time, there is no video of the event. If you or someone you know has video or pictures, please e-mail us at webstaff@wpxi.com.

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