Suit against coach strikes out in court
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ARCADIA - A judge has made it safe again for high school coaches to lose their tempers, tossing out a lawsuit that accused a coach of inflicting "emotional distress" on a softball player by calling her "a 2-year-old."
"I'm just glad it's over," said Coach Don Riggio, who manages the junior varsity softball team at Arcadia High School. "Now we can move forward and do what we're there for, and that's to coach."
Attorney Michael Oddenino filed the lawsuit in October, alleging that Riggio yelled at his daughter when she played on the JV team last spring. The girl has since left the team.
Oddenino named Riggio, varsity Coach Ed Andersen and the Arcadia Unified School District in the lawsuit. He sought $3 million for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligence, a civil rights violation, and *** discrimination.
The suit alleged that Riggio "took advantage of his position of authority to engage in an abusive pattern of excessive intimidation and humiliation of the female players, frequently calling them `idiots,' and belittling them for minor errors."
Riggio's supporters praised his coaching skills and said the lawsuit was frivolous.
"This is a case that never should have been filed in the first place," said Steve Rothans, Riggio's attorney.
Oddenino had butted heads with Andersen when he was head of the Lady Apaches Booster Club, a group of softball dads who raised money for the team. He said he believed Andersen and his staff should be replaced.
Andersen disbanded the booster group last summer.
Rothans has said that Oddenino was behaving like a parent who thought he knew better than the coach how to run the team.
Andersen said other coaches in the area were following the case, and hoped he and Riggio would prevail.
"Should cases like this come out unfavorably for the coaches in the San Gabriel Valley, it's going to be hard to find coaches," Andersen said. "This job doesn't pay a lot."
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jan Pluim dismissed the case March 14. Pluim wrote there is nothing wrong with "a coach pushing an athlete to excel, and in so doing, using words that in another context would be considered rude, demeaning and even intimidating."
"Referring to a student as a `two-year-old,"' Pluim wrote, "is insufficient to constitute a tort in the context of a teacher-student relationship."
Oddenino did not return a call for comment Tuesday. Andersen's attorney, Dana McCune, said Oddenino had agreed not to appeal the ruling, and that his daughter was free to leave the school district if she wishes.
Andersen said other coaches in the area were "delighted" by the ruling.
"This was about a parent trying to take control of the situation," he said. "We are here for the kids. We've done nothing wrong. We're only trying to get kids to excel."
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