An investigation being conducted by Pop Warner football's national league could lead to suspensions and probation for two Hawai'i teams involved in a brawl with a Maryland team at a Walt Disney resort in Orlando.

Sam Mutz, the national football commissioner for Pop Warner, said the teams could be suspended from postseason participation. Pop Warner officials are in the "preliminary stages" of the probe and are sorting through exactly what happened.

The three teams were participating with 61 other teams in the Pop Warner Super Bowl, which was held Dec. 2 to 8 in Orlando. Disney officials ordered the three teams and their families to check out of the resort at 3 a.m. Saturday after the fight.

"It's disappointing because it was a tremendous week of competition, great games and thousands of families out enjoying the event," said Mutz from Philadelphia, near the Pop Warner headquarters in Langhorne, Pa. "We take this very seriously and they (the three teams involved) could incur penalties based on what's taken place.

"We discuss this with all the coaches and players prior to the event and we address sportsmanship and how to conduct themselves at the event and while on the resort property. The Hawai'i teams are typically well behaved and it's uncharacteristic for events like this to happen."

Mutz said he was called to the resort at 1:30 a.m. and met with administrative members from all three teams involved in the altercation. However, he was not told exactly what happened other than a large fight broke out.

Team administrators were not clear about what happened and could not provide a detailed explanation, he said.

The league is collecting statements from each team and will speak with Disney officials and the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Mutz said Pop Warner Super Bowl attendees had claimed the Baltimore team had been involved in other incidents during the week but nothing could be substantiated.

KAHALU'U BOY INJURED

The fight involving more than two dozen players and at least three chaperones from three teams sent a 15-year-old Kahalu'u boy to the hospital with a broken nose and prompted the eviction of about 70 Hawai'i residents from the Walt Disney All-Star Resort.

Jerry Neuman, president of Pop Warner football in Hawai'i, did not return several messages seeking comment yesterday. Administrative directors for the Kahalu'u and Wai'anae Pop Warner associations also did not return several messages seeking comment.

EYEWITNESSES

Hawai'i parents and witnesses who were at the Walt Disney All-Star Resort on Saturday morning said that people with the Westport Patriots of Baltimore, the Kahalu'u He'eia Broncos and the Wai'anae Tigers got into a fight near an arcade in a hotel courtyard.

They said the fight broke out after members of the Baltimore team taunted, then attacked, a group of boys from the Kahalu'u team, prompting members of the Wai'anae team to get involved. The incident escalated into an altercation involving at least 30 people, according to parents on the trip.

Shortly after the fight, at about 3 a.m., the 70 players and family members from O'ahu, as well as families from Baltimore, were given written notices from the Walt Disney resort informing them that they had 20 minutes to vacate the property or Orange County sheriff's deputies would be called to remove them.

"My son was sick. He had kidney stones and was running a fever and we got kicked out of the place," said Chris Fowler, father of a Wai'anae player.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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