- FAST FACTS:
- Coach says he found racist flyer over the weekend
- Flyer found during Town of Collierville Tourey
- Coach filed a complaint
tom.powell@wreg.com
(Collierville, TN April 27, 2009) -- Teams from neighboring counties came to play in an invitational baseball tournament over the weekend in Collierville. They came to play America's favorite past time, but Coach Courtney Mitchell says what he found on his car brought up ugly memories of what he thought were times past.
"I was shocked," Mitchell says, referring to a flyer he says he found on his car during the tournament. Mitchell lives in Collierville, and coaches his 9-year-old son on a racially diverse team run by the Town of Collierville. The team is called the Collierville Reds.
The flyer reads as follows:
"This is our sport and our town. We don't need you --- here taking our children's future. Get On Back To Memphis where you --- belong!"
In the lower left hand corner of the flyer is a picture of a baseball player with a racial slur written across his chest, and an X through his face.
"Just to see and have to experience something like that, it just was a bad feeling all around," Mitchell says. He's been around baseball a long time. A Grambling State University Graduate, Mitchell was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1994. He says in all that time, he's never experienced anything quite like this, but he says if the person who put the flyer on his car intended to scare his team away, they'll be disappointed. "We're here for the kids," he says. Coach Mitchell says the Collierville Reds aren't going anywhere. "We have a successful program."
Mitchell filed a complaint with the city saying he and parents of other children on his team were concerned about a series of bad calls during the tournament. He says the flyer was the final straw.
City of Collierville Spokesperson Mark Heuberger says the city has received the letter, and the situation is under investigation. "We are looking into it. We absolutely won't tolerate any activity like this. It will be dealt with," he says.
