GunScare @ Albion Cup?

While the gun situation certainly isn't the organizers' fault, we were at this tournament this weekend and it was poorly organized and I'll voice my opinion that our team doesn't play here again.

My main beef is that the traffic/parking situation is plain awful. Getting in and out of there on a single-lane road for so many cars is the first problem. We had early games both days and the parking staff were completely unorganized and there was extremely poor signage and traffic management. I had to walk probably 3/4 of a mile to get from my parking spot to the field where my child was playing. Completely unacceptable. And to think I paid $10 to have these privileges.

Beyond this, the fields are poor quality and a definite level below places like the OC great park and Silverlakes. Most are 90% dirt and rock hard. Many had potholes filled with sand. There were a bunch where you couldn't even see the sidelines. The port-a-potties had no soap/sanitizer and needed to be emptied. Inside the race track, there were lines with 10+ people waiting for the port-a-potties.

And Sunday, our team had a "required" in person check-in so that they can take photos of the team to try and sell us? Gee, thanks.

The gun episode is a sad ending to an event that I'm hoping to avoid in the future.
 
zebrafish said:
While the gun situation certainly isn't the organizers' fault, we were at this tournament this weekend and it was poorly organized and I'll voice my opinion that our team doesn't play here again.

My main beef is that the traffic/parking situation is plain awful. Getting in and out of there on a single-lane road for so many cars is the first problem. We had early games both days and the parking staff were completely unorganized and there was extremely poor signage and traffic management. I had to walk probably 3/4 of a mile to get from my parking spot to the field where my child was playing. Completely unacceptable. And to think I paid $10 to have these privileges.

Beyond this, the fields are poor quality and a definite level below places like the OC great park and Silverlakes. Most are 90% dirt and rock hard. Many had potholes filled with sand. There were a bunch where you couldn't even see the sidelines. The port-a-potties had no soap/sanitizer and needed to be emptied. Inside the race track, there were lines with 10+ people waiting for the port-a-potties.

And Sunday, our team had a "required" in person check-in so that they can take photos of the team to try and sell us? Gee, thanks.

The gun episode is a sad ending to an event that I'm hoping to avoid in the future.
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are you for real?
 
I am not sure that people who were not there are appreciating what happened. My daughter was on the field at the time. A rush of people came pouring onto our side of the complex saying there is a active shooter - RUN!! My kid and some of her teammates ran over the road, through the parking lot, jumped fences and hid in the yard of a house. I had other kids there and, like many others, got separated from my daughter. She is running with no idea if her parents were dead. She is 12. People hiding in cars, behind trees. Parents yelling the names of their kids in the parking lot, trying to find them. And Albion just sent around en email about what a great weekend it was with a footnote about an unfortunate incident and a harmless verbal threat. I don’t think that quite captures hundreds of kids running into the surrounding area in fear for their lives, or parents in sheer panic about what happened to their kids. Albion should be ashamed - not because of the actions of an idiot parent - but certainly for its own terrible communication. It is deeply disrespectful to what those kids endured today. I would be embarrassed to belong to that club and somebody should be held accountable for how they are communicating about this.
 
Sounds like they didn’t know how to handle something like this. I don’t think many clubs or youth sports venues have prepared for something like this to happen.
But times are changing. I’d say we can expect costs to go way up if we need to have police officers on hand and expected detailed and rehearsed disaster preparedness plans.
 
Dof3 said:
I am not sure that people who were not there are appreciating what happened. My daughter was on the field at the time. A rush of people came pouring onto our side of the complex saying there is a active shooter - RUN!! My kid and some of her teammates ran over the road, through the parking lot, jumped fences and hid in the yard of a house. I had other kids there and, like many others, got separated from my daughter. She is running with no idea if her parents were dead. She is 12. People hiding in cars, behind trees. Parents yelling the names of their kids in the parking lot, trying to find them. And Albion just sent around en email about what a great weekend it was with a footnote about an unfortunate incident and a harmless verbal threat. I don’t think that quite captures hundreds of kids running into the surrounding area in fear for their lives, or parents in sheer panic about what happened to their kids. Albion should be ashamed - not because of the actions of an idiot parent - but certainly for its own terrible communication. It is deeply disrespectful to what those kids endured today. I would be embarrassed to belong to that club and somebody should be held accountable for how they are communicating about this.
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Words don't convey the emotions you're feeling in those moments. Thank goodness it turned out to not be what so many feared.

Would you be willing to share what Albion put out?
 
blam said:
Can someone post video on it?
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My hope is the "official" video camera on pole at the game was recording to identify all involved.

A good quality photo of the individual has been shared with the Riverside Sherriff's Department as well as tournament officials.

Between that and knowing the team, hopefully they find this individual (if not already) and prosecute to the full extent.
 
Dof3 said:
I am not sure that people who were not there are appreciating what happened. My daughter was on the field at the time. A rush of people came pouring onto our side of the complex saying there is a active shooter - RUN!! My kid and some of her teammates ran over the road, through the parking lot, jumped fences and hid in the yard of a house. I had other kids there and, like many others, got separated from my daughter. She is running with no idea if her parents were dead. She is 12. People hiding in cars, behind trees. Parents yelling the names of their kids in the parking lot, trying to find them. And Albion just sent around en email about what a great weekend it was with a footnote about an unfortunate incident and a harmless verbal threat. I don’t think that quite captures hundreds of kids running into the surrounding area in fear for their lives, or parents in sheer panic about what happened to their kids. Albion should be ashamed - not because of the actions of an idiot parent - but certainly for its own terrible communication. It is deeply disrespectful to what those kids endured today. I would be embarrassed to belong to that club and somebody should be held accountable for how they are communicating about this.
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So it was from the Albion parents who decide to pull out a gun wow
 
Veritas said:
New to SoCal but never heard of anything like this happening before elsewhere. Hopefully this is just a one time fluke and never happens again. I understand things can get heated but never ever should it reach such level. These heated altercations are happening mostly with new parents to soccer with young kids plying u10 and younger. There must be better education measures about the dangers of ”new soccer parent rage syndrome” and best ways to deal with it. You even see it happening here on the sub-forums, u10 and younger.
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Something similar happened at Villa Parke in Pasadena when my son was Ulittle. There were shots fired and the coaches shouted for all the kids to get down as the shooters ran across the field. They turned out to be local gang kids and had nothing to do with the game.
 
zebrafish said:
While the gun situation certainly isn't the organizers' fault, we were at this tournament this weekend and it was poorly organized and I'll voice my opinion that our team doesn't play here again.

My main beef is that the traffic/parking situation is plain awful. Getting in and out of there on a single-lane road for so many cars is the first problem. We had early games both days and the parking staff were completely unorganized and there was extremely poor signage and traffic management. I had to walk probably 3/4 of a mile to get from my parking spot to the field where my child was playing. Completely unacceptable. And to think I paid $10 to have these privileges.

Beyond this, the fields are poor quality and a definite level below places like the OC great park and Silverlakes. Most are 90% dirt and rock hard. Many had potholes filled with sand. There were a bunch where you couldn't even see the sidelines. The port-a-potties had no soap/sanitizer and needed to be emptied. Inside the race track, there were lines with 10+ people waiting for the port-a-potties.

And Sunday, our team had a "required" in person check-in so that they can take photos of the team to try and sell us? Gee, thanks.

The gun episode is a sad ending to an event that I'm hoping to avoid in the future.
Click to expand...
I agree, I was at the upper fields (9 fields ) with only 8 porta potties. At 11am Saturday some were already completely full and none had toilet paper. Not a water station with soap or sanitizer to be found. Sunday there was toilet paper however by 2 pm half the potties were locked as they were overfilled. Throw on top the scheduling of the games with only 5 minutes between games for bracket games.... ridiculous. Go back to the SoCal Sports Complex where this tournament in prior years was played.
 
focomoso said:
Something similar happened at Villa Parke in Pasadena when my son was Ulittle. There were shots fired and the coaches shouted for all the kids to get down as the shooters ran across the field. They turned out to be local gang kids and had nothing to do with the game.
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Villa Park is total hood area of Pasadena. Not uncommon to be there during training and see Pasadena PD with 5-6 locals against the fence or proned out on the floor. Being there for training at night is even worse.
 
4th big fight in Sand Diego area in the last 1.5 years , maybe its the people.... Glad everyone is ok, be thankful it didn't end up worst. Gallaway Downs is a mud fest, low level barely stable event center, always was and always will be . Honestly you cannot blame the club, what happen is out of their hands, but now we know to invite first responders , maybe have them do something like park a few squad cars around the area and let kids take pictures with them and the fire trucks , make it like a casual thing to introduce kids to police and firemen trade and in case anything happens they are right there as a deterrent.
 
Stryprod said:
To be clear, at least as of earlier, no weapon was found.

Not sure which team the individual was with other than he was on spectator side left.
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First, let me blame the Referee crew for even letting this get out of control. Cards need to be sent out early and game temperature needs to be managed. When I reviewed the video of the game I can see it was a individuals on the Azteca side and on the Albion South Bay B2009 fighting.......CalSouth needs to get serious and Ban both these Teams from anymore tournaments. We need to start to eliminate the "Ghetto Nature" out of our tournaments. New parents to our game need education on sideline behaviour and conflict resolution. Real Sad.
 
Very scary and not trying to make light of what happened. But reminds me of this (nsfw due to language) movie clip from “White Men Can’t Jump”
 
BruceDern said:
First, let me blame the Referee crew for even letting this get out of control. Cards need to be sent out early and game temperature needs to be managed. When I reviewed the video of the game I can see it was a individuals on the Azteca side and on the Albion South Bay B2009 fighting.......CalSouth needs to get serious and Ban both these Teams from anymore tournaments. We need to start to eliminate the "Ghetto Nature" out of our tournaments. New parents to our game need education on sideline behaviour and conflict resolution. Real Sad.
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Just like it was her fault for what she wore right? Blaming the refs.... you've got to be kidding me.

Whether a perfectly or imperfectly called game, this behavior is not acceptable and falls 100% on the parents and their children. If you're looking to blame anyone else, blame the coaches, as this behavior does not magically manifest out of thin air and it's on them to manage their players.

CalSouth needs to take strong action against these players and the teams. Both teams are to play in Presidents for State Cup... both should be disallowed at a minimum.
 
Stryprod said:
Just like it was her fault for what she wore right? Blaming the refs.... you've got to be kidding me.

Whether a perfectly or imperfectly called game, this behavior is not acceptable and falls 100% on the parents and their children. If you're looking to blame anyone else, blame the coaches, as this behavior does not magically manifest out of thin air and it's on them to manage their players.

CalSouth needs to take strong action against these players and the teams. Both teams are to play in Presidents for State Cup... both should be disallowed at a minimum.
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I agree with what your saying
 
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