Coach Attacks Teen Football Player

Sept. 6, 2006— -- An assistant football coach in Stockton, Calif., is accused of rushing the field and attacking a football player on a rival team.

With just a minute left in the game, observers say 13-year-old, 116-pound Brian Wood made a late hit, prompting the referee to call a penalty.

Then, Cory Petero, 36, the assistant coach of the rival team and father of the boy who had taken the hit, tackled Wood.

"I got up to go to the huddle, and I was about to take off my helmet, had my straps off, and then he just came out of nowhere and hit me from behind," Wood said. "Then he rushed me again, and my big brother came up and then there was just a big old brawl out there."

That brawl, not caught on camera, lasted 20 minutes. The fight left Wood with sprained fingers, a sore shoulder, and lingering headaches.

Petero faces a charge of felony child abuse that could put him behind bars for six years.

"I hope he goes to jail for what he did. You see late calls called. You see it all the time," said Denise Moreno, Wood's mother. "It doesn't mean that people are out on the field beating each other up. It's just not right."

Coaching experts agreed.

"I don't care what the frustration level was or what precipitated it," one expert said. "It's just not appropriate."

"The bottom line is that one of these incidents is one too many because it's traumatizing kids," the expert said.

"What it all boils down to: An adult ran out on the field and hit a child, period," Moreno said. "People need to understand that. It's not right, no matter what."