BANGOR, Maine — Jarrod Williams said he is remorseful.
The coach of the Brewer Little League 9- and 10-year-old all-star softball team said he regrets his actions that led to his ejection and subsequent arrest on a disorderly conduct charge during a District 3 tourney game in Bangor last week.
Williams was ejected Wednesday after one of his players was called out at the plate during the fifth inning and he came out of the dugout to question the call.
“I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ from the dugout and I saw one of our coaches, Andy Dore, making a beeline for the umpire (Derrick Cunningham). I said to myself, ‘Oh no, this isn’t going to be good,” said Williams. “I walked in front of Andy and told him I would take care of it.”
Williams admitted that he was animated but insisted that he didn’t swear and that he simply wanted to appeal the call to the base umpire.
“But Derrick told me to leave the field. I told him the only way I was getting off the field was if he made me get off. Then he ejected me,” Williams said.
That led to a shouting match among fans watching the game and Williams said three Brewer parents also were ejected.
Darren Currier, the tournament director, said Williams was starting to walk away with one of the parents but kept yelling at the side of the dugout, so he went over to try to calm him down.
“I told them they had to leave. The parent left. I told him he had to go over by the tree [near the field]. He chest-bumped me and said he was going to knock me out,” Currier said.
Williams acknowledged that could be true.
“I don’t remember [chest-bumping] him but I very well could have. Things were nuts. I probably did tell him I’d like to knock him out,” Williams said.
Currier called the police and said to Williams, “I don’t know how you do things in Brewer but this isn’t how we do things in Bangor.”
That stirred Williams up even more.
“I probably shouldn’t have said that,” admitted Currier.
Williams eventually left the field and as he reached the batting cages, he picked up a home plate and threw it on top of one of the batting cages.
Williams said he and some of the parents wanted to stay on the perimeter to watch the rest of the game. He said he knew had had to leave the venue but was unclear of exactly what that meant.
“It was probably going to be our girls’ last game,” said Williams, whose daughter plays on the team.
Cheryl Derrah, president of Bangor West Side Little League, and District 3 Little League assistant administrator Mike Brooker were contacted to try to defuse the situation. Bangor police officers also came to the field.
Williams said he talked with a Bangor Little League board member, who has asked not to have his name used, and that the board member told police they were working things out.
Then Derrah arrived.
“I tried to calm him down but he was still very much out of control,” said Derrah. “All I told police was that he needed to leave the facility because if he was still there when the game was over, it wouldn’t have been a pretty scene.”
Williams said a Bangor police officer told him he had to leave the property.
“He said it was city of Bangor property but I told him it was the Amicus parking lot and asked him when the city bought Amicus,” said Williams.
While Currier was being interviewed by police, Williams admitted that he called Currier a “douchebag.”
“Then the handcuffs went on me,” said Williams.
“All he had to do was leave. He wouldn’t have gotten arrested,” said Derrah.
Williams said he could have just received a summons rather than be arrested.
“Calling somebody a douchebag in public isn’t that big of a deal,” he said.
But Williams said he also realizes he was at fault and “I wish I had just kept my mouth shut.
“I’d still be able to coach,” he said.
The Brewer Little League board of directors is likely to ban him from coaching and he said he doesn’t have a problem with that.
“I wouldn’t put my name into coaching again. They don’t need that headache. They’re in a bad enough situation with me doing what I did in the first place,” said Williams, whose court date is next month.
Williams said there were underlying reasons for his demeanor last Wednesday.
Cunningham is the Bangor West vice president for softball, and Williams noted that under Little League International bylaws, he shouldn’t have been umpiring the game.
Cunningham had umpired a previous Brewer game and was working at the Wednesday game because the other umpires hadn’t shown up.
Williams said he was irritated that the Bangor coach was able to question a call with the base umpire but Cunningham told him he couldn’t.
Williams’ wife, Jody Williams, said umpires make mistakes but there seemed to be a “lack of respect” for the Brewer team.
“The thing that stinks is I care so much about these girls and they have come so far. I let it escalate too long,” said Williams, who will continue to coach daughters Jaiden and Jordin in the backyard and on their own “because that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
Brooker said that some people in Brewer have respect for Williams as a coach.
“But you can’t lose it like he did,” said Brooker.