A youth soccer director called 911 on a 3-year-old’s parents, and the boy’s goals have now brought him an invitation to train in Orlando and, reportedly, a December trip to Spain with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports. Nevada Pierre, who is Black, was playing in an i9 Sports league at a public park in Winter Park, Florida, on Oct. 24 when the league asked his family to leave.
His mother, Martasia Griffin, says the reason was his talent. The league and Winter Park police say the call was about the parents. The body camera footage released this week supports parts of both accounts, and it settles less than the video of Nevada dribbling past older children suggested.
Two accounts of the same afternoon
Griffin says adults gathered in a circle as the game went on. “Other parents, the director, and some of the coaches got in a circle, and I knew they were talking about Nevada, trying to figure out how to let us know that he can’t play,” she said. When she objected, she says, “they just called the police.” She also wrote that “the league kicked Nevada out because every week no one could take the ball from him.”
Winter Park police describe a different call. The caller, the league director, “alleged that the parents of a young player were being disruptive and that as the league director, he wanted the parents to leave the park,” the department said. It added that “there was never any suggestion that the call to police was prompted over the child’s on field talent.”
On the body camera video, the official tells officers the parents are “creating a big scene, arguing with the other parents” and says, “I just want them out immediately.” He calls Nevada advanced for his age but says the boy pushed other children. The police event report says the parents left without issue and were cooperative, and that they “were upset that their child was being scorned for playing too well and was being taken out of game.”
Officers treated it as a civil matter. No one was arrested or issued a trespass notice. The league offered a refund. i9 Sports says it takes the concerns “very seriously” and has begun a review that includes speaking with those involved. It has not announced findings, and no official finding says race played a part.
Who stepped in
Eddie Johnson, the former U.S. men’s national team forward, offered Nevada a place at his EJE7 Soccer Academy in Orlando, with training expected to begin in January. “We should be praising a three year old with his ability instead of tarnishing it,” he said, and he named “gatekeeping and profiling especially against people of color” among the problems in youth soccer.
Roc Nation Sports posted “Keep shining Nevada, we support you!” The Spain plan comes from Loren LoRosa of The Breakfast Club, who said he was told the family will work with the company’s overseas division, which represents soccer players, to “create opportunity for Nevada.” Neither Roc Nation nor the family has detailed it publicly. A GoFundMe for the family has passed $42,000, according to Complex.
The question the video raises is older than Nevada. Soccer is among the costliest youth sports: parents of players spent an average of $1,188 a season in 2022, according to the Aspen Institute’s Project Play. Black participation has fallen behind. In 2013, 45% of Black children played sports, more than their white peers. By 2023, 35% of Black youth ages 6 to 17 played regularly, against 41% of white youth, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association figures Project Play cites.
Nevada’s family says he still wants to play but will not go back to that field. i9 Sports has not said when its review will finish.
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