Little Quips voted out of youth football league
ALIQUIPPA, Pa. (KDKA) — The Aliquippa Little Quips youth football season has come to a sudden conclusion after their governing body removed the team from the league.
The Beaver County Youth Football League voted to remove Aliquippa on Wednesday evening. It comes days after parents were involved in a fight that was caught on camera after Aliquippa's Twerps team had a 41-0 victory on Oct. 19.
"I mean, these kids got the lights turned off on them last night, and I haven't stopped crying, so just imagine how they feel," said Aliquippa Youth Football President Jason Harvey.
Harvey says kids shouldn't be punished for the actions of parents and that football is critical to keeping kids out of harm's way. He chalks up their league dismissal to other teams wanting to get rid of them because of their dominance.
Aliquippa Mayor Dwan Walker said he saw a Central Valley parent start the fight before he jumped in to help break it up.
"This wasn't between coaches. This wasn't between the referees. This wasn't between players," Walker said.
He said he never got a chance to explain to the governing body what happened.
In a statement from the Rochester Little Rams, another team in the league, they said Aliquippa has been on probation since the start of the season for violations relating to submitting improper birth certificates, report cards and not meeting residency requirements.
"Violence should never plague youth sports and we have a duty to our respective organization and children to put their safety first," the Little Rams statement said.
Harvey said they are not the only team that has faced violations, and that they have offered to add more security.
"As we speak, there's still numerous teams that had violations, and they're still in the playoffs," Harvey said.
The Rams said the video of the fight was shown to the BCYFL board. They say at the game, which was not an Aliquippa home game, a pregnant woman had hot chocolate thrown at her before she was attacked by seven to eight women.
When contacted, a leader of the BCYFL did not provide KDKA-TV a statement. Late on Thursday, Walker said the Little Quips will still play on Saturday.
