RALEIGH - A rash of parent-on-parent confrontations and clashes with referees last weekend -- some prompted by the quest for shade -- prompted the area's largest youth soccer league to suspend five adults.

The parents and coaches will be banned from attending one game sponsored by Capital Area Soccer League, many of whose teams have matches this weekend. The suspensions stemmed from altercations in three separate Challenge-division games, according to league officials.

In one that CASL officials documented in e-mail messages to league coaches and parents this week, spectators stood back and watched as a fight broke out among parents, leaving a youth referee to break up the altercation.

"It never ceases to amaze me the insensitivity of parents to kids," said Apex High Principal Matthew Wight, who coaches two of his daughters' CASL teams. "Not just the kids playing, but oftentimes there are kids refereeing."

"I think people lose their perspective and forget these are just little kids."

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