Sperry youth football team to play in ‘Justice Bowl’ after disqualification

SPERRY, Okla. — A Sperry youth football coach said he’s taking legal action against his team’s football league. Coach Will Collier said the 5th and 6th grade team went undefeated all season, but was disqualified from playoffs and a chance to win a championship.

Collier said his boys have not played a game in four weeks due to teams forfeiting against them.

Megan Dickey’s son has played on the team for the past four years. She said her son went from a benchwarmer to a starter thanks to hard work and he fell in love with the game. She adds, things became political within the KanOK Youth Football League.

“There’s no scholarships in the 6th grade. There’s no cash prize. There’s maybe a trophy that gets put in a case you walk by. Other than that it’s just the pride of walking onto the field and pride of saying I did that,” she said.

Collier said with the extra time due to teams forfeiting, the head coach went to a Dewey football game -- the other dominant team in the KanOK league.

“Members of that board said they saw him recording. Turns out, in one of their bylaws it says, ‘no third party’ recording allowed,” Collier said.

Collier adds the league took a vote allowing town representatives in Dewey’s club to vote, too. Collier said, in the bylaws that’s not the rules, which is why he’s taking legal action. He said the league also owes Sperry’s booster club $2,000 because every time a team forfeits, the forfeited team pays the league $500 which goes to the club they forfeited to, which he said they have not received.

According to KanOK bylaws, “disciplinary actions will be dealt with by the board members with the exception of the towns involved in the dispute. Any action taken will be handled by a majority vote among the board members only.”

Due to pending litigation the KanOK president declined to comment.

Collier started a GoFundMe to cover legal fees and any extra money raised will be spent on new equipment and a field trip for the team.

A Pryor youth football team has shown support for the Sperry players and are taking justice onto the field.

Pryor Youth Football Coach Chris Buck saw the GoFundMe and told Collier his team will play them so the kids can enjoy playing one last game.

“It’s definitely not best for the kids to not get a last game. That’s where we stepped in like, hey we’ll come to you guys. Let you collect a gate fee. I know you’re missing out on some money for the playoffs and at the end of the day they didn’t realize that was their last game so we want to give them a finality to their season so we offered to come over,” Buck said.

The two teams are calling this game the Justice Bowl.

“A lot of kids already turned in gear and everything so we’re issuing gear at the 11th hour trying to put this thing together. at the end of the day it’s about football for the kids and letting them experience childhood and get out of the drama with the adult side of youth sports which is kind of ridiculous,” Buck said.

The teams got a trophy for the game and want to make it a traveling trophy in hopes this bowl game becomes a tradition.

The game is Saturday at 7:30 at Sperry High School.