A flag football coach is in hot water after allegedly choking a teenage girl during a postgame fight involving his daughter, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office arrest report.
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The incident began when tempers flared during the postgame handshake. A player from the winning team allegedly teased a member of the losing team, who then attacked her.
Multiple eyewitness accounts identified a 16-year-old as the assailant, who pulled 15-year-old Sophia Lopez to the ground by her hair.
According to court documents obtained by The Post, the teenage attacker allegedly put Sophia in a chokehold for roughly 15 seconds.
"She started making fun of me for losing the game," Lopez told CBS12 News. "The one thing I said to her that set her off was, "You just fell on your face, and it's a rec game."
When the two flag football participants began fighting, the father of the 16-year-old attacker intervened and administered a chokehold of his own on Lopez.
"It felt like everything was so tight," Sophia said. "It felt like I was just.. I was never gonna get out until I just saw black."
"It was a complete choke," Ryan Lopez, the coach of his daughter's team, said. "So he's pulling her forward and he's trying to pull her back, not by her waist, which would be the common sense thing to do."
Father and Daughter Arrested After Postgame Brawl
Lopez's father, Ryan, then jumped into the fray to defend his daughter, and the group fell to the ground. Ryan claims the 16-year-old kicked him in the face with her cleat as he tried to regain his footing.
"All I did was just pull [Mayer] down. Then, while I'm trying to get up, she pulls my chain. Then kicks me in the face with her cleat," Ryan said.
Following the Oct. 20 incident at Greenview Shores Park, Brandon Mayer, 37, and his daughter were both arrested. Mayer was charged with felony battery of strangulation. He was booked on Oct. 28 and released the following afternoon on $75,000 bond.
Per CBS12, the 16-year-old was charged with simple battery.
It is unclear whether Mayer has been relieved of his duty as the youth flag football coach.
