Accounts of incident vary wildly; police still investigating
A contentious youth basketball game in Estacada led to the arrest of a Molalla Youth Sports coach over the weekend.
After an altercation with a 17-year-old referee, Molalla coach Jeffery Larsen, 34, was cited by the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office on a charge of criminal trespassing of a sporting event.
Emotions ran high at the Estacada High School basketball court where the Molalla and Estacada fifth and sixth-grade girls teams were playing on Saturday.
According to a statement by the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, Larsen refused to leave the premises after receiving two technical fouls in the course of the game.
Instead, he remained in a corner of the building, according to the CCSO release, where he continued to harass the referee, 17-year-old Estacada High School student Houston Webb.
The first technical foul occurred during the first half of the game, when Larsen became argumentative over a foul called on one of his players. The second technical foul, and Larsen’s ejection from the game, occurred in the second half, when the coach reportedly slammed his clipboard down on the hand of sixth grader Katie Nation who was acting as scorekeeper.
The girl sustained a cut to her hand but did not require medical attention, according to the CCSO release.
As the game went on, the fans on both sides reportedly became increasingly incensed. At the end of the game, which Estacada won by a large margin, witnesses said that members of the crowd swarmed onto the floor, where a shouting match ensued. No physical injuries were reported.
Witnesses told CCSO that Larsen walked onto the basketball court, where he grabbed Webb’s arm, made a threatening gesture with his fist and called the referee a “jackass” and an (expletive).
They also reported that Molalla’s assistant coach James Ulin, 32, pushed Estacada Junior High principal and coach Kevin Olds, 47, who was attempting to intervene between Larsen and Webb.
According to Webb, it was Ulin who pushed him first, followed by Larsen grabbing his arm. He said Olds was able to intervene and deescalate the situation at that point, but about 50 parents remained on the court arguing and shoving.
“As I’m walking away, I look back and everyone’s pushing and shoving each other, and the girls are crying.” Webb said.
Although no charges are currently being pressed against Ulin, CCSO spokesperson Det. Jim Stovink said on Monday that the assistant coach is still under investigation. Deputies contacted Ulin at his home after the game and found him cooperative.
Olds told CCSO that about 75 parents and children witnessed the event.
“Many of the girls were frightened … crying … and fleeing the building with their parents,” he said.
Larsen did not return a call for comment.
Parents who were present at the game gave starkly conflicting accounts.
Molalla parent Linda Botsford, who was in Estacada watching the game said that the account of events reported to the sheriff’s office was “completely inaccurate.”
Larsen was not told to leave the premises, she said; he was simply told to stop coaching, which he did.
Botsford also said that there was no physical altercation at the end of the game, although there were “words exchanged” between Larsen, Webb, and several other men.
“No one hit anyone, no one grabbed anyone, no one cocked their hand back trying to hit anyone,” she said.
Botsford said that Larsen has a loud coaching style and frequently shouts directions at the players during the course of the game, but when he was told to be quiet, he did so.
“He has been nothing but helpful, encouraging and respectful,” she said.
Theresa Nation, an Estacada parent who placed the 9-1-1 call reporting the incident, had a different perspective. Nation, the mother of scorekeeper Nation, was beside her daughter during the course of the game.
After the first technical foul, she said, Larsen demanded to see the rule book, and in the course of arguing with the referee, slammed his plastic case of papers down on the table.
“My daughter’s hand was on the table, and he slammed it on her hand and hurt her,” Nation said. “… Her finger was hurt and she was definitely shook up.”
Webb said that he did not believe Larsen intentionally hurt the girl.
“I know that he didn’t mean to do that on purpose — he was just mad and he was fired up,” he said.
Immediately after the game, Nation said, Larsen made a beeline for Webb.
“(Larsen) grabbed his arm and shoved him, the referee shoved him back, and it kind of became mayhem after that,” she said.
The two coaches had left the scene by the time sheriff’s deputies arrived, and deputies were unable to find Larsen at his house later in the day.
However, the Molalla coach put in a call to a friend, an off-duty Molalla Police Department officer, to ask for advice, according to Strovink. The MPD officer reported the call to CCSO.
“Friends or no friends, he had an obligation and he reported it,” Strovink said.
The next morning, CCSO deputies found Larsen at home. The coach was cooperative and told the investigating deputy that “the atmosphere surrounding the event at Estacada High School was fully charged,” according to a CCSO statement.
Larsen was cited and released from the Clackamas County Jail that day, on a charge of criminal trespassing of a sporting event, a class C misdemeanor.
He is scheduled to appear in court on March 17.
MYS president Bob Russell said the organization was still in fact-finding mode as of Monday, with an expectation of deciding on a course of action by the end of the week.
Although declining to comment on specifics of Saturday night’s events, Russell said that Larsen had coached for MYS in the past and had not been involved in any previous reported incidents.
“I watch the news like everybody else,” Russell said, “but I wanted to make sure we proceed cautiously and get all the facts before we make a decision.”
— Abby Sewell
