FISHERS -
A coach was sent to jail after one of his players, a 17-year-old girl, accused him of punching her on a Hamilton County basketball court.
The coach from Wisconsin has been charged with battery and spent the night in jail before he was released Tuesday morning. The alleged incident happened at the Indiana Fieldhouse Sports complex during the Indy 100, a U.S. Junior Nationals Basketball Tournament certified by the NCAA.
A 911 call from an adult at the complex detailed the alleged assault.
"We have an issue where we have a male coach, has physically attacked his young female player in the parking lot," said the male caller. "She's got scrapes on her elbows and she's got some bruises on her arm."
Fishers Police said when they got there, they found the 17-year-old girl who told them her coach had attacked her after the team lost their game.
The teen told investigators 47-year-old Fred Freeman from Wisconsin yelled at her, punched her in the face, threw her on the ground and put his hands around her throat. Police say an adult there also told them she saw the coach hit the young woman.
A parent who told Eyewitness News she saw what happened, but didn't want to go on camera, had a somewhat different story. The parent said it all started with a fight between two students on the team, one of them was the coach's daughter. The woman told Eyewitness News she saw the coach trying to break up the fight when the girl who claims she was assaulted, lashed out at the coach. The parent said the coach restrained the young woman on the ground, but said she never saw the coach punch the teen in the face.
"It's sports. It's supposed to be fun. It's competitive, but it should never get to that point no matter how heated you get," said parent Leah Fredenburg from Wisconsin.
Parents, like Fredenburg, told Eyewitness News they've seen fights before at games that involved players, coaches, even parents.
It's been an issue that's prompted some sporting leagues to adopt codes of conduct. Several sporting leagues locally have codes of conduct, like one Eyewitness News looked at from a youth soccer league in Fishers.
The code outlined proper behavior expected of everyone at games. It listed specifics, like parents refrain from any negative, threatening, vulgar, or inappropriate language or behavior while participating in, or watching, any club sponsored game, practice or event.
"You have to know what's right and what's wrong and everybody should be held up to that standard," said parent Jean Washington.
A standard, many parents said, needs to be the top priority, not the numbers on the scoreboard.
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