The Railroading of Charles Michael Zascavage

By John Rizzuti
©2005 InsideTexasWrestling.com
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For weeks, I have been following the unfolding saga of the Flower Mound High School wrestling team, it’s coming out party, and all that’s been publicized (including the two editorial columns in the Dallas Morning News – one by WBAP’s Mark Davis, and the other by my old buddy DMN columnist Kevin Blackistone). I’ve been flabbergasted by what I’ve seen – the good, the bad and the ugly. We’ve only been exposed to part of the story. The ugly part. Toss in graphic, predudial photographs, courtesy of an (suing, of course) attorney in this case. By the way, great move on their part to sear those nasty images into the minds-eye of the jury pool. Might as well cut the defense off right at their weak spot. Their nuts!

For the record, I live within the confines of the Lewisville Independent School District (LISD). The mail delivery says “Carrollton.” – the prestigous, ultra-hip, non-gated community of historic High Country Estates – all within the LISD. We’re like Highland Park, except that we’re not. We pay substantial property taxes that help keep the lights on in the schools. Coaches, teachers and administrators – we help pay their salaries. We have a vested interest in the LISD, including who teaches and who coaches, and how taxpayer dollars are spent.

I don’t know any of the plantiffs, any of the defendants, any of the attorneys (thank goodness), nor any of the parents, other than possible isolated, casual conversations at wrestling meets or online. I would be hard-pressed to put any name with any face. The only exception is Charles “Coach Z” Zascavage. More on the coach later.

I wasn’t at the pool party. Even if I was, I couldn’t have seen everything that transpired. A four-hour “bash” with close to a hundred people in attendance, means that no one did. No one knows exactly what happened that day. And no one ever will. A wise person once told me in any particular situation there are always three versions of what happened. Your side, my side, and the truth. I’ll leave the precise fact-finding to the investigators. The people directly involved aren’t talking.

This event isn’t about hazing. It isn’t about sexual assault. It isn’t about lax supervision.

This is about money. It’s all about the money. It’s always about the money.

Enter the ambulance chasers.

To the extent that it was malicious, whatever happened that afternoon and caused harm to a child was wrong. I’m not passing judgment on any actions by anybody. Pretty sure that the plaintiff’s parents saw big dollar signs – huge dollar signs – when this all came down. Their attorney, “Yakety-yak, get cash back,” Mary Alice McLarty, was making a big pitch in the newspapers and on TV about her clients getting beaten silly by “foam” water toys. OUCH! I don’t know about you, but the first sight of a pool toy sends soap bubbles up my spine!

Here is her quote from The Dallas Morning News: “McLarty said upperclassmen targeted freshmen in a gantlet and punched, slapped and whipped them with foam water toys. (Emphasis mine.) Man, those are weapons of mass distraction. I’ll bet they pack quite a wallet.

Look up “ambulance chaser” in the dictionary and you’ll probably see her picture. Ms. McLarty proudly lists a myriad of personal injury cases on her firm’s web site. One case located near the top of a very long list says she handled “Boys who were hazed and beaten at a boarding school.”

Nice to know she has a pre-packaged, ready-to-go case file. Wonder if she’ll drop her fee for this one. Let’s do the math. On a million-dollar settlement her firm could get $300,000 to $400,000, if her fees are in line with typical percentages. Yes, it looks like they work on “commission!” Somebody smack me on the noggin and let’s get floggin!

She has the (balls) to have the above-mentioned Dallas Morning News story (http://www.maryalice.com/HazingFlowerMoundHS.html) front and center on her web site, too. In my opinion, you have to have arrogant disregard for the concept of “innocent until proven guilty.” The bodies aren’t even cold yet and she’s all over this like flies on a gut wagon. She’s ranting and raving about her clients being swatted about by rubber-duckies!

These are wrestlers. This isn’t pocket-pool. This isn’t band. Wrestling is hand-to-hand combat. Who do you think makes up the majority of professional mixed-martial arts fighters in the world today? It’s wrestlers! The soon-to-be Chief Justice of the United Sates Supreme Court, the Secretary of Defense and the Speaker of the House of Representatives are all former wrestlers. They are smart and they are they are tough.

Perhaps Mary Mary Quite Contrary should take a look at the physical condition of a wrestler after a state tournament to see what the sport is all about. It is survival of the fittest. The law of the jungle rules. Wrestling makes gangsta rap look like gospel. If you’re in a foxhole in Vietnam and artillery shells are exploding all around you whom do you want next to you? Paris Hilton or Danny Hodge?

My freshman year at college (I was only 18 – barely, weighing 150 pounds, wearing my little red Speedo, with just slightly over two years of total wrestling experience) was one of the most difficult and demanding experiences of my life. It included daily ass-whippings of a massive magnitude. I will never forget those long daze and wasted nights. (Once a King always a King, but once a Knight’s enough!) That year made anything that happened in Flower Mound or a thousand Flower Mounds, pale in comparison. I bring it up only because I knew what I was getting into – at least to some degree.

The first two days of workouts were “initiation” or so we were told (or perhaps simply getting ready for real world college athletics). We were joining a fraternity called “college wrestler.” We were punching bags. Kicked, smacked, gouged, twisted, you name it, and we got it. It was a rite of passage. I would never trade it for anything. Once a wrestler, always a wrestler.

At one point, I was sure I was going to break. But to say anything to anybody, to complain to anybody about anything would have been a disaster – a scar(lett) letter of the worst kind. Here’s a pretend conversation Þ:

Me: Gosh, wrestling is really tough and these upperclassmen are mean to us freshmen.

College Challcellor: What do you want me to do about it? If you don’t like it, go out for golf.

Me: There is one kid who picked on me and he weighed a whole hundred pounds! Isn’t this assault or harassment?

CC: No. Assault is getting your ass kicked by some gangstas over 50 cent(s) at the 7/11. Harassment hasn’t been invented yet. This is only 1971.

Me: So, like what should I do?

CC: Why don’t you get off your lazy butt and get back in the wrestling room and learn some moves to defend yourself. And quit wasting my time, sissy.

Me: That’s hot.

Here’s how this case ultimately plays out.

Two predictions. First, the LISD will cough up tens of thousands of dollars (or more) for the plaintiffs without a court fight. Second, none of the defendants will be found guilty of any crime. I’ll take bets on both of these calls. I’ve been there, done that, own the t-shirt, and bought the silk-screening equipment, too. I can just imagine the glee and pulse-pounding excitement when the checks start rolling in. Fast Times at Flower Mound High (for the parents anyway). I’ll bet the local Lexus dealership is salivating over this settlement.

If this isn’t about money, then why do you hire a Scary Mary? If this isn’t about money then there shouldn’t be a lawsuit looking for punitive damages. By the way, the case for the prosecution has more holes than Clyde Barrow.

More advice? Fight fire with fire. I would look at hiring the meanest (and savviest) junkyard dog (JYD) criminal defense attorney in the area. I know. I have used him.

Somebody like Barry Sorrels, who is often seen on Court TV as an expert in criminal defense tactics and strategies. You put Barry, or someone at his level, up against Denton County prosecutors and it will be a massacre.

No way do I condone needless, reckless, senseless violence, or the denial of civil rights. Nor do I diminish what, if any, serious injuries that may have occurred. But how many of them come even within a million miles of what happened to young John Prigg two years ago. Do you see their family filing a negligence lawsuit?

As Mrs. Prigg told me once on the phone, “This isn’t about money. This is about getting Jay (John Prigg, Jr.) back to where he was before.” Here is a family with (IMO) a slam-dunk case against the very same LISD, mentioned earlier. (If they have filed or plan to file, at the present time, I have no knowledge of any action being contemplated.)

So what is the big deal? Flower Mound loses the guts of what could have been a fabulous wrestling season. But who gives a flip about wrestling anyway? It isn’t football for goodness sake. The kids and parents put their lives back together. Sure there is some damage but who cares as long as the checks clear. Everyone eventually moves on. Nolo contendere.

Just for the record, this is not the first time something like this has happened at Flower Mound High School. Looks like it’s CYA time for the administration. Think about it. Do some homework. You might be surprised by what you find.

All’s well that ends well. Except for the one person in this affair I personally know. One Charles Zascavage, a/k/a Coach “Z.” When I saw his mugshot in the Fort Worth Startle-Gram, I saw the look of a beaten man. Here is a guy who in the all the years I have know him has never said a negative word, and never done anything but be a total stand-up guy. Now he has his jailhouse photo in newspapers, TV and websites, all over the country. Too bad they didn’t use the picture of Coach Z when he was named coach of the year by a group of his peers. Fame is fleeting.

Here is a guy closely aligned with Texas USA Wrestling, yet never once did he take a shot at me, InsideTexasWrestling.com, or any of the people I work with here. The reason? Unlike some others over there (and you know exactly who I’m talking about), he has too much class to bring himself down to that level. I refereed many matches for The Colony H.S., and never once, never one time, did he question a call even though both of us knew I would sometimes miss one.

Attempted Character Assassination.

“Google” his name. You’ll see what I’m talking about. Forget about “Coach of the Year.” Forget about creating a wrestling powerhouse at Flower Mound. Forget spending his summers working his rear off for Team Texas. Forget it all. All the kudos are down and gone from the school website. Earth to LISD, he sill alive! Earth to LISD, innocent until proven guilty!

At some level he’s been tried and convicted by innuendo. When he’s found not guilty, and he will be, where will that coverage play? Will Flower Mound High School put back his creds back on the school website? Who foots the bill for his attorneys?

This is a man who lives to teach and coach. He’s certainly not in the business for the money. Yet he’s being dragged across hot coals for the love of money.

Do you think he will ever get back his reputation? The only way he will get it back is to take it back. Coach Z is in the match of his life. Imagine your mugshot in front of millions of people. But it is a victory that can be won and will be won. He will come out of this affair better and smarter.

Coach Z has proven that no matter how hard we try, how good of a person we are, no one is perfect. He made a mistake at that pool party. He showed up. Past that, no one knows the whole story, the true story – no one! I would say that if anyone can recover from this, it is Coach Z. He has what most of us can only talk about – and that is “character.”

Unfortunately, I know a little something about character assassination. Unless you have been living in a cave the past two years, you know exactly what I mean, and whom I’m talking about. For the past two years, I have been the subject of extensive, ongoing, devious character assassination attempts (not to this extent, of course) just because I have an alternate amateur wrestling website that people love. In my case, I’m dealing with lightweights (not exactly lightweights, but you get my drift) so nothing they try has any impact on me.

Unlike the clowns, the fatties, and ambulance chasers of the world, wrestlers will stand up and fight back. We have to. It’s in our nature. You try to railroad a wrestler and you will have your ass handed back to you – sliced, diced and julienne-fried.

If you think you know the whole story of the Flower Mound Pool Party, you don’t. When Coach Z and the other defendants get their say, the rose will be swathed in different hues, for sure. Let’s hope they get their day in court and the LISD doesn’t fold the tent and write the checks. Please, do not give in to the ambulance chasers and those who think they are in for some easy money.

Coach Z? His time for redemption is coming. Bet your bottom dollar on it. I hope he puts a Barry Sorrels-type on his team. When everything is on the line, always go with a JYD. They take no prisoners.

Until next time, Texas

John Rizzuti
Managing Editor
InsideTexasWrestling.com

jrizzuti@aol.com