Junior High Coach Accused Of Throwing Baseballs At Players

It sounds like the old schoolyard game "butts up." Only with an adult throwing the ball at the kids. Also, it's a freaking baseball.

Roy West, the coach at Silo Junior High in Durant, Okla., has been charged with seven counts of injury to a minor child, and placed on administrative leave after an incident in the spring. Parents said that West had a unique method of disciplining players who didn't perform well on the field.

The investigation began April 10 when Bryan County Sheriff’s Office received reports of several seventh and eighth grade student athletes being struck by baseballs thrown by West as a form of punishment. Investigators began contacting parents and urged them to schedule interviews of their children if they had “marks or bruising” as a result of the incident.

“Multiple children did come forward displaying substantial bruises to their legs and arms, consistent with having been struck by a baseball thrown with significant force,” the affidavit states. Another investigator recorded corrective actions which included punitive running and push-ups.

“Later that corrective action became simply standing, facing away from the coach and as students described, ‘get pegged,’” states the affidavit. “One witness statement described the students involved as being defenseless and without helmets or bats to protect them from injury.”

The sheriff's office said the investigation "met with resistance from some of the parents" who "felt that Coach West had done nothing wrong."

West's attorney told the local paper that "in no way, shape or form would Roy West ever intend to hurt a child."

[ Durant Democrat]