Winter Park May Review i9 Sports' Use of City Fields After a 3-Year-Old Was Removed From a League

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Winter Park May Review i9 Sports' Use of City Fields After a 3-Year-Old Was Removed From a League

After police were called to an i9 Sports game at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, Winter Park's mayor says the city will decide whether to keep working with the league once i9 finishes its own review.

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Winter Park officials may take a formal look at whether i9 Sports should keep running youth leagues on city fields. The question came up at a city commission meeting this week after a dispute at an i9 soccer game went viral, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said the city will review the matter once i9 completes its own review and then decide "whether we go forward or not with them." Commissioner Craig Russell, a longtime Winter Park High School teacher and coach, said the city will look more deliberately at the leagues that rent its facilities. Lawanda Thompson of Equity Council Corp., the only public commenter, asked for a formal review and said the discrimination allegations must be weighed on the evidence.

What Happened at Martin Luther King Jr. Park

Police were called on Saturday, Oct. 24, during a morning i9 game at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, per WFTV. A league official reported a disturbance between league officials and the parents of a 3-year-old player in a league for 5-year-olds. In 911 audio, the official said the mother was being disruptive and that the child was more advanced than the other kids and sometimes pushed them. The mother, Martasia Griffin, told police the official had treated her son unfairly for weeks because of his talent and that neither she nor her son had done what was described.

Winter Park police said officers walked the family to an exit, that nobody was arrested, trespassed or forced to leave, and that body-camera recordings support that account. The department called it a civil matter. The league removed the child from the program and refunded the fall registration, per ABC News.

i9's Review, Threats to Local Owners, and a $59,000 GoFundMe

i9 Sports said it has contacted the family and started a review that includes speaking with those involved, and that the respectful treatment of every child and family matters to the company. The Sentinel reported that local league owners have received threats. Griffin's videos, posted to the child's social accounts, drew hundreds of thousands of followers, and a GoFundMe had raised more than $59,000 from about 2,200 donations by Thursday. Former U.S. national team forward Eddie Johnson, who runs an academy in Orlando, offered to train the boy starting in January.

The city has not set a date for its decision. Youth sports coverage from Central Florida continues on the BallerTube youth sports page.