Football Player, 15, Told He’s Too Old to Play--by 2 Days

The goal of Pop Warner Football is to give every player an experience he will remember the rest of his life.

Because of Pop Warner, Chris Vaughn, a 15-year-old with big dreams but severe emotional and learning problems, is definitely having an experience he will remember.

But it is not the experience that Chris and his parents had hoped for, nor the one that the Pop Warner program, which involves 220,000 youngsters nationwide, had promised.

Chris’ father, John, a retired San Diego firefighter, had been reluctant to allow his son to play tackle football. But he relented because the boy’s psychologist thought it could help Chris’ fragile self-esteem to be part of something wholesome like football.

Chris, at 5 feet, 4 inches and 120 pounds, had long wanted to play football. But there is no team at the private school he attends in Del Mar for students with dyslexia, which impairs reading ability.

For a while, Pop Warner worked wonders for Chris.

He attended every practice, studied the playbook at night, earned money through his summer job to buy $300 worth of equipment and played well enough in two scrimmages to win a first-string slot as a running back for the Kearny Mesa Komets.

Then 15 minutes before the kickoff of the final practice game on Labor Day weekend, Chris’ football career was unexpectedly terminated when a league official hustled over to him and said he was two days too old to play Pop Warner.

“Chris was traumatized and upset, and I was ready to fight anyone I could find,” John Vaughn said. “Chris was walking up and down the field with tears in his eyes.”

Although officials of the Kearny Mesa league had had his birth certificate since May, they had overlooked the fact that his birthday is July 29. League rules say any player who turns 15 on or before July 31 is too old.

The experience has left the son bummed out and the father angry. “It’s just not fair,” said Chris Vaughn.

John Vaughn has tried unsuccessfully to get the local and national Pop Warner officials to waive the July 31 rule. As he sees it, Pop Warner officials made a mistake and now his son, who takes the drug Prozac for a manic depressive condition, is being penalized.

He also is concerned that his son’s problems, which were known to the coaches, may have contributed to the last-minute decision to boot him from the team.

John Vaughn said he heard an assistant coach refer to his son as a “dummy.” He said he gently corrected the coach about his language, and a week later a league official discovered the age discrepancy.

Steve Schisler, the assistant coach, who lives in San Diego but works in Anaheim as a sales manager for Custom Wheel Service, denies ever calling Chris Vaughn a dummy. “I would never use that kind of downgrading term about a kid,” he said.

There are also disagreements about the tenor of communication between John Vaughn and league officials. Vaughn said the officials were rude and brusque; they said he got loud and demanding.

Rikki Kinsfather, president of the local Pop Warner league, said she feels terrible for Chris Vaughn. That the birth certificate was not checked earlier, she said, is just one of those mistakes that occur when an organization is run by volunteers.

“I know what the child is going through, it’s just heartbreaking,” Kinsfather said. “There is always the possibility of error when humans are involved. Not everyone has a computer.”

Chris still wears his maroon-and-white jersey with number 34, like his favorite players, Bo Jackson and Thurman Thomas. Despite his problems, he is an Eagle Scout, a brown belt in karate, an active member of the Mormon church and has aspirations to be an actor or professional athlete.

A suggested compromise to let Chris stay with the Komets as a water carrier-equipment manager only infuriated father and son.

John Vaughn said the refusal of Pop Warner to bend the rule refutes all the higher goals the program supposedly stands for, such as helping boys develop a sense of fair play, teamwork and individual challenge.

Even John Butler, who presides over Pop Warner from national headquarters in suburban Philadelphia, has been pulled into the dispute. He said his hands are tied: rules are rules.

If an overage player, even one only two days over age, were allowed to play, Pop Warner’s insurance could be imperiled if there is an injury, Butler said. Other appeals in the past have been rejected, he said.

“One of the things sports teaches is that the ball doesn’t always bounce your way,” Butler said. “Sometimes an official blows the call and you don’t get to play anymore.”