Softball coach charged with assault after allegedly attacking grandmother at game: 'He body slammed me'

Hope Schreiber
·Writer

A softball coach with the Cy-Fair Texas Sting organization has been fired and charged with assault after he allegedly attacked a grandmother at a game in an incident captured on her cellphone camera.

Donna Edwards, 60, was attending her 11-year-old granddaughter’s softball game when she heard someone yelling obscenities from another field. She went over to record a video of a teenager she claims was cursing during the tournament game when a coach in the league, identified as James Schmidt, entered the stands and allegedly lunged at her and knocked her to the ground on Saturday at Dyess Park in Cypress, Texas.

Edwards said that she started filming the teen, whom she identified as Schmidt’s son, to show his disruptive behavior to the team organizers when, she said, Schmidt charged her “like a bull.”

“He body slammed me. He just charged at me like a football player and he was going for my phone,” she told the Houston Chronicle.

The video, posted on Facebook, shows a teenager giving Edwards the middle finger, and then Schmidt swinging open a gate and grabbing the woman’s phone while saying, “Do not!”

According to Houston news station KHOU, Edwards’s adult son pulled the coach off of her, and Schmidt proceeded to hit him.

“He wanted to fight. He didn’t care who he was going to fight. Whether it was a 40-year-old man or a 60-year-old woman, it didn’t matter,” she told the outlet.

Schmidt left the field before officers were able to respond on Saturday and a warrant had been issued for his arrest, Harris County Constable officials told the Houston Chronicle. A Harris County Constable official has confirmed to Yahoo Lifestyle that Schmidt turned himself in on Wednesday morning.

Houston news station KTRK reported that Schmidt has since been relieved of his duties as a coach following the incident. Pat Bergin, who according to Cy-Fair Texas Sting’s website is a coach with the organization, described the incident as “unacceptable,” writing on Facebook that “Cy-Fair Texas Sting strives to promote honesty, integrity, trustworthiness and accountability in coaches, players and parents. We require the highest levels of good sportsmanship at all times. Therefore, as of this afternoon, February 17, 2019, the coach involved in the incident is no longer associated with Cy-Fair Texas Sting.”

Upon hearing that Schmidt would no longer serve as a coach, Edwards told KTRK, “Hallelujah! That’s all I can say, because that guy has absolutely no business being around kids.”

Edwards, who told the Houston Chronicle she is suffering from neck and back pain, on top of being bruised from the incident, plans to file charges. “Hopefully, somebody holds him accountable for his behavior,” she told the news outlet.

Edwards wrote on Facebook that her granddaughter, who has played on her softball team for three years, has decided to leave the league.

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