Minor soccer dad severely beaten

EDMONTON — An Edmonton soccer dad says he was viciously beaten after a recent game involving his 15-year-old son when he tried to calm down angry members of the opposing team.

Speaking through a wired-shut jaw, Dean Smith said he was swarmed by about 14 or 15 players and was kicked several times in the face.

He says the two squads of under-18 players had an “aggressive” game in which slurs, taunts and insults were hurled.

He says the opposing team won, but wouldn’t shake hands after the game and started to follow one of the players from his son’s team, trying to provoke a fight.

Smith says he intervened and told the youngsters to back off and that’s when he was swarmed.

Other parents started calling police and the attackers fled, dispersing on foot into the surrounding neighbourhood.

The post-game attack left Smith, 43, with five fractures in his face.

He underwent more than two hours of surgery and had three plates surgically installed. His jaw will be wired shut for at least three weeks and there is a 50-50 chance he will lose sight in his right eye.

Smith, who has been off work as a driver for people with disabilities, began to tear up Saturday as he talked about his ordeal.

“I’ve never seen it before in my life. I coached for nine years with different types of teams and I’ve never seen any attack like that before, ever. It’s just disgusting,” he said.

“This is a community sport. This is kids having fun. That’s how it’s supposed to be.”

Still, Smith believes it was an isolated incident, which was echoed by the chief operating officer of another soccer league in Edmonton.

Barrie White of the Edmonton Interdistrict Youth Soccer Association said he has never heard of anything like this before, but added there has been an increase in troubling incidents.

“They’ve been a little too vocal with criticizing the officials or taunting the other players. We’ve had a couple of cases over the years and we’ve brought teams in and suspended parents from being at the games.”

Edmonton Minor Soccer Association officials said Friday they were restricting their comments because police are investigating the incident.

However, president Mario Charpentier said automatic suspensions have already been doled out and he stressed that a case like this is a rarity.

The entire opposing team has been suspended indefinitely.

Edmonton police confirmed Friday they were searching for suspects in the attack.