Monthly Archives: October 2011

HS Coach Accused of Recruiting Boy, 16, From Mexico to Play Basketball, Forces Kid to Sell Gourmet Popcorn Instead

Cesar Landin, 16, wanted to come to the United States to play on a select high school basketball team. In fact, his parents were so desperate to get the boy this opportunity that they reportedly paid Theodore Berry, an assistant basketball coach at Lewisville High School (Texas), $300 a month to make it happen.

But instead of playing b-ball, Landin was forced to sell gourmet popcorn. Yes, you read that correctly: gourmet popcorn as part of some fundraising scheme. No rebounding drills, no three point shooting seminars, no ball handling classes: just going door-to-door selling over priced popcorn to strangers.

According to the teen, he “was forced by threats of violence to sell the popcorn in the city of Lewisville, Texas or he would be beaten.” Landin also claims that Coach Berry shoved him at some point, likely for not pushing the high end “upscale” gourmet popcorn items.

Not surprisingly, Landin’s parents were not happy with this arrangement (college scholarships for gourmet popcorn sales are not as common as they used to be) and eventually showed up in the US to get their son and filed assault charges against the coach/former national sales champion.

Parent, Coach Argue at YMCA Basketball Game, Coach Returns With Gun, Shoots, Misses

We’re not sure how good a basketball coach Paul H. Hill, 45, of Minneapolis (father of Tayler Hill, a starter on the Ohio State women’s basketball team) is, but his small arms shooting apparently needs some work. Which is fortunate for the parent of one of his players after an incident earlier this month at the downtown YMCA.

According to police reports, Hill and the parent got into an argument after a game and at one point the coach stormed off yelling “I’ve got something for you!” and taking off in his car. He returned a short time later and did have something for the parent: a loaded gun. He allegedly fired once from three point range, missed, did not box out to get the rebound and then drove off.  Not surprisingly, Coach Hill now faces second-degree assault and has been banned from all YWCA facilities.