Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette photos
	Nelek Mitchell watches a videotape of himself being arrested at a Pop Warner football game at Taggert Stadium in New Castle
	Corey Eggleston, 35, was one of three men arrested after a Pop Warner football game in New Castle on Saturday.

NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- It's the tale of two tapes.

One depicts three angry New Castle youth football coaches losing their cool and firing off obscenities at three officials after what they believed was a bad call. But there is no violence to be seen.

The other purportedly shows the same three coaches provoking police with vulgar language, inciting a crowd and sparking violence when one of the coaches fires a football at the officials.

Each tape shows bits of the same incident: three coaches of a losing team, the New Castle Hurricanes, crossing the boundaries of acceptable behavior at a football game for fifth- and sixth-graders.

Where the controversy comes is whether more than words were hurled.

"The tape shows one of the coaches definitely throwing a ball at the referees," said Mike McGee, head of the Tri-County Youth Football League in New Castle. The tape McGee is referring to was shot by a league official.

McGee imposed a lifetime ban from football for all three coaches after he watched that tape. New Castle police also arrested the coaches for their behavior, which "was utterly ridiculous," McGee said.

The other tape was shot by the father of a boy who played for the three coaches. It shows swearing and anger but no violence.

The significance of the two tapes is this: The coaches hope to use theirs in court to exonerate themselves. League officials said they will turn theirs over to police to back up the charges and the lifetime ban.

The tale of the tapes begins at the 50 yard line of an otherwise unspectacular youth football game Saturday.

The Laurel Spartans are in the process of shutting out the Hurricanes, 26-0, in the fourth quarter when an 85-pound Hurricanes running back picks up a teammate's fumble and sprints 70 yards for a touchdown.

C.J. Eggleston, 11, breaks a tackle in the backfield after the ball bounces his way. He scurries to the opposite side of the field, evading Spartan linebackers.

He then shoots down the left sideline for a long touchdown. The asthmatic boy falls into the end zone, gasping for breath.

But the dramatic moment is broken by an official's whistle -- a yellow penalty flag lies on the grass, 30 yards upfield. A Hurricane is called for clipping a Spartan linebacker, negating the touchdown.

Corey Eggleston, C.J.'s father and a former standout fullback-defensive end for New Castle High School, storms onto the field with his son still prostrate in the end zone. He curses at two of the referees and says, "I'm taking my son out of the game."

Corey Eggleston, who rushed for 1,353 yards during his senior year of 1988 and was named the Post-Gazette's Class AAA player of the year, grabs his son and tells him the game is over.

"My son has more talent than I ever had. In every game, they're calling back at least three or four of his runs," Eggelston said earlier this week. "That's why I flipped out. For him to go out there and get beat up and give them all of that and then those referees just take it all back -- I just got sick of it."

As Eggleston jaws at the referees, Fred Smith, a Hurricanes team official, charges onto the field and joins in the tirade.

The referees, obviously agitated, end the game at that point, with a little under 6 minutes left. The teams filter into the middle of the field to shake hands, and the chaos that had ensued for about five minutes seems to simply stop.

But suddenly, footballs bounce at the feet of two of the officials as they leave the field. Out of view on the tape but clearly audible, fans continue to taunt the refs and swear at them.

It is clear that one of the balls is thrown by a child, who aimed it at a referee. A second ball comes from off-screen and bounces around an official's heels.

This is where the tapes diverge. While the Hurricanes' tape only shows the child throwing a ball at the referees, the league's tape is said to show clearly one of the coaches flinging a football toward the refs.

A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter watched the Hurricanes' tape, which also showed the coaches being arrested later outside Taggert Stadium. The league said it had turned its tape over to police, but two New Castle detectives said yesterday that the department didn't have it.

"Nobody threw a ball at those referees," said Nelek Mitchell, one of the three Hurricane coaches and the team's medical assistant.

Mitchell was arrested for disorderly conduct after he screamed at his friends that police were being overzealous by making him move along.

"Nobody ran after the officials and the tape proves it," he said.

The team's tape also shows angry parents streaming out of the stadium and congregating outside, cursing and letting off steam from the game. Police arrive after a frightened parent calls 911 and tells the dispatcher that police need to come quickly because there's going to be "riot."

Initially, six New Castle police cars arrive, and within moments those officers call surrounding areas and Pennsylvania State Police for backup. The crowd outside the stadium refuses to leave, and the police, increasingly irritated with some of the language being used, start threatening people with arrest.

Eggleston and Smith were arrested along with Mitchell for disorderly conduct and face a preliminary hearing Oct. 4.

The aftermath of the penalty call and the arrests have spawned claims of lingering racism.

The Hurricanes are almost all African-Americans. The rest of the teams in the league are mostly white.

"Because we're black, we got to try twice as hard on the football field, the basketball court or the baseball field," said Eggleston. "Just give my kids a fair chance, just like your kids. That's all I asked."

Jamie Pezzuti, who lives across from the stadium, witnessed the aftermath and the irate coaches. She said the coaches damaged the bond children usually develop with their coaches in youth sports.

"Those kids on that team don't have much guidance," said Pezzutti. "They look up to those coaches for guidance, and they let them down."

Steve Mellon/Post-GazetteVIDEOTAPES TELL VERY DIFFERENT STORIES