Police Called After 3-Year-Old Pulled From Youth Soccer Game for Dominating Play
Police were called to break up a heated sideline confrontation at a 5U youth soccer match after a family was forced to leave the field. Tensions flared when a league official intervened and pulled an unusually dominant 3-year-old player off the pitch to give other children a chance to touch the ball. The decision sparked an immediate disturbance with the boy’s parents, escalating to the point where law enforcement had to be dispatched to escort the family from the park.
Despite new bodycam footage released to OutKick showing that police were called because the parents were disruptive — not because their 3-year-old was “too good” for a predominantly White 5U beginner soccer league — a Florida family continues to push that claim while raising money on GoFundMe.
On Saturday, Winter Park police were dispatched to a city soccer field to handle a disturbance called in by a soccer league director who told police that the family of the soccer prodigy doesn’t like when he tries to make the league fair for all the kids.
“So he scored a lot of goals, but he pushed the kids to do that, all that stuff. So I tried to tell him. Hey, stop!,” i9 Sports league director Thomas Hayes told police with the bodycams running. “Don’t let him push. Don’t want to play with pushing. Right. So a few weeks ago there was like six kids on the team anyway. I swapped the kids out. Right? Because he’s so good. Take him out. They don’t like that. Tell me I’m ignorant. I’m this, I’m that.”
COPS CALLED TO FLORIDA YOUTH SOCCER GAME TO DEAL WITH PARENTS OF 3-YEAR-OLD SOCCER PRODIGY
Things boiled over Saturday, according to Hayes. He says there was more pushing by the 3-year-old. That’s when he got involved. That led to the boy’s parents creating a “big scene,” Hayes added. The boy’s parents then allegedly started arguing with other parents and Hayes had a situation on his hands.
Enter the police.
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Meanwhile, despite Hayes praising the boy’s God-given talents, the prodigy’s mother, Martasia Griffin, is now pushing a GoFundMe for her son to break away from what she continues to push as an injustice.
“On October 24, 2026, during a game with i9 Sports in Winter Park, Florida, Nevada went through an experience no child his age should have to endure,” Griffin writes on GoFundMe where she’s now raised over $25k. “He was removed from the game because of concerns about his skill level, and the situation escalated to the point that law enforcement was called. At just 3 years old, Nevada could not understand why he was being taken away from a game he loved. What should have been a happy childhood moment became heartbreaking and distressing for him and deeply painful for our family to witness.”
Thomas Hayes of i9 Sports in Winter Park, Florida explains to police why he wants the family of a 3-year-old boy to leave the park and the league. (OutKick/Winter Park, Florida Police Department)
Based on that, you can surmise that Griffin isn’t taking any responsibility here. Instead of admitting that they entered their advanced son in a beginner-level soccer league, Griffin plays the victim card.
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“As his mother, it has been incredibly hard to see the emotional impact this has had on him. We believe every child, regardless of abilities, background, or potential, deserves the chance to learn, grow, and enjoy the game they love in a safe and supportive environment,” Griffin continues.
That’s exactly what Hayes was trying to do. How are the other kids enjoying the game if Little Pelé is scoring 40 goals in a handful of games where they don’t have goalies? It’s a beginner league.
It’s true that Nevada is a victim here. He’s a victim of parents who entered him into a beginner soccer league that he could dominate for clicks. They had him in this same league back in the spring. They knew he was going to dominate those other kids. They’d been producing dozens of videos of Nevada destroying other kids and farming it out on social media. “Nevada Missed 3 games this season and still ended the season with with 40 goals in just 4 games,” the parents bragged in a May Instagram post.
Yep, bragging about goals in a league without goalies. That’s where we are with youth sports.
This was posted in July. Nevada was already able to dribble through the entire opposing team. The family knew it was going to be more of the same this fall, yet they kept the boy in the league.
If there’s a positive takeaway from this story, it’s that Nevada will now go play against high-level talent where he can continue to develop. He seems to love his athletic gift. That’s awesome.
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As for the parents, they got an influx of new Instagram and TikTok followers and $25k from GoFundMe. Yet another Instagram child star is born. Cashing in right now will be easy. The hard part for the boy is still to come –– he has to continue to be good or the Internet stardom fades.
Chasing those clicks for families is a tough game. It’s cute now. Let’s see how this pans out.