League Officials to Discuss Football Melee

Officials of the Orange County Junior All-American Football league hope to meet this week to discuss what can be done to prevent brawls like the one Saturday at Aliso Niguel High School that involved about 150 players, parents, coaches and fans.

There is a possibility that next year’s all-star game may be canceled because of the melee that resulted in the arrest of an 18-year-old from Visalia after he allegedly bashed a 15-year-old with a football helmet, said Tony Chargualaf, president of the Fountain Valley Junior All Americans and current president of the league’s executive council.

Another option would be to have Orange County teams separate from the current program that has them playing those from Los Angeles County, Chargualaf said Monday.

The free-for-all occurred after the game between divisions of the category for 7- to 14-year-olds. The south division from Orange County won, 8-6.

The melee broke out when two boys from the losing side approached and one of them allegedly assaulted one of the winning players, Chargualaf said. More than a dozen sheriff’s deputies were called to break up the fight.

Over the weekend and on Monday, Chargualaf said his phone was ringing from parents concerned about the potential danger of a game that, at this stage, had been considered a safe sport.

“I have parents saying, ‘My kids are not playing in this game again because of this one incident,’ ” he said. “My main goal is: I want my kids and everyone’s kids to play football in a safe environment and in their own backyard.”

One way to do this, he said, is to break up the league, which has 162 teams from Los Angeles and Orange counties.