For nearly three years, an Edmonton boy’s soccer team worked tirelessly to raise nearly $60,000 to participate in an international tournament in Las Vegas this weekend.
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The U-11 youth select soccer team was set to depart Friday morning, but on Monday their hearts were broken after finding out that the majority of the money raised had disappeared — and nobody has heard from their head coach.
“Over the last few years, we’ve probably done 50 bottle drives, we’ve sold thousands of boxes of World’s Finest Chocolates, we’ve hosted pub nights. These families and kids have been busting their butts to raise the money for this tournament,” said Adam Scorgie, whose son Beckham plays on the team.
“We were with him (head coach) for three years, we never expected he’d go through this elaborate plan to steal the kid’s money like this.”
Not only was money missing from the team’s account, but no flights or hotels were booked, and the team wasn’t registered for the tournament.
‘This whole thing was a scam’
On Monday, Adam’s wife Lauren started getting questions from other parents as to why their team wasn’t on the tournament schedule when it was released on the website. When Lauren went through the bank account records, almost $40,000 was missing, and she and other parents are left trying to piece together what happened.
“I called the Las Vegas Soccer Association, and the president called me back within minutes, and said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He never registered you,” Scorgie said.
“I called the hotel that he said we’d be staying at and found out there was no booking. I called the airlines, and they didn’t have a group booking for 45 people. When those pieces started to add up within an hour, we soon realized this whole thing was a scam.”
Lauren, who is the team manager and assistant coach, was in charge of all the fundraising events, and said when the head coach suggested they raise funds for this once-in-a-lifetime tournament, he offered to handle all the bookings.
“The soccer community is tight, and it seemed like we were all working towards the common goal of getting our kids to this tournament where there are (NCAA scouts), and teams from different countries,” said Scorgie.
“We thought it was so awesome that he doesn’t have a kid on the team, but he wanted to do this for the team and all our boys. We were trusting, and now everyone is kicking themselves in the butt that we were so trusting. We got duped for sure.“
Lauren immediately filed a report with Edmonton police and then she and Adam had to break the news to their son, as well as the rest of the parents on the team.
Postmedia reached out to EPS, and they confirmed in an email on Wednesday they’re investigating the report of fraud. Officers met with the parents and kids at a team practice on Tuesday.
“I feel like the (police), their hearts are really with us because they saw the group of kids and they knew how heartbreaking it is for the kids. I know they’re going to do what they can to bring justice,” said Scorgie.
None of the parents, the Edmonton Minor Soccer Association (EMSA), or police have been able to locate the head coach.
Adam said he hopes the coach gets caught and receives a lifetime ban from coaching soccer across the country.
“I wish we could say there were all these little red flags we saw, but there wasn’t that big one where we could say, ‘How did we miss this?’ ” said Adam.
“Our organization did nothing wrong. He passed all criminal record checks, but in the end, he breached our trust and betrayed these kids.”
GoFundMe eclipses $53,000
Parents started a GoFundMe account on Wednesday and by Thursday morning it had raised more than $53,000.
It’s too late for them to go to this weekend’s tournament, but they plan to use the money to either attend the Vegas tournament next year or compete in a major summer tournament in Minnesota.
“We’re trying to use this as an opportunity to educate Beckham and the other kids — look at what people can do when we all come together.” Adam said, adding they’re grateful that Edmonton’s soccer community has rallied around them.
“Unfortunately, they’re learning a tough life lesson that monsters are out there that do bad things. I would’ve liked to have shown him that much later in his life, but we’re getting a rude awakening of how they are, and you can’t always trust people.
“After they realized we weren’t (going), there were a lot of tears, but we got together for a practice (on Tuesday), and the kids talked, but they just went right into playing soccer and helping each other and hugging each other.”
Postmedia reached out to EMSA South executive director Angie Sych, who said while they are aware of the situation, the organization won’t comment further until the investigation is complete.
Postmedia also tried to contact the coach for comment by email but was unable to reach him.
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