Piper coach gets one year

Probation sentence result of two-year-old battery case

David Coleman was sentenced Tuesday in an assault case from 2014, when he punched a player while serving as an assistant football coach at Taravella.

Coleman, now coaching and teaching at Piper High School, was found guilty of battery and reported for probation Tuesday morning.

The 32-year-old Coral Springs resident will return to Broward County court Thursday for a hearing in a separate case, related to his recent arrest for domestic abuse. Coleman was taken into custody on July 13 following an incident involving an ex-girlfriend.

Coleman pleaded no contest in the two-year-old battery case and was sentenced to 12 months of probation and 250 hours of community service.

“I just wanted to get it over with,” Coleman told the Sun Sentinel early Wednesday. “I am not a monster. I am not a bully. I just want to move on and continue coaching football and helping kids.”

Then the defensive coordinator under coach Dan Marguriut at Taravella, Coleman struck a freshman player on the side of his chest with his fist during a spring practice on May 6, 2014. The blow dropped the 15-year-old to the ground and left a sizeable bruise on his ribs.

The boy and his parents reported the incident to Coral Springs police as well as to Taravella principal Shawn Cerra, who now serves as Broward Public Schools athletics director.

Coleman was fired from his coaching job and temporarily reassigned from teaching math at Taravella amid a district police investigation. During the probe, Coleman admitted to hitting the teen and said he had previously struck other players in a similar fashion. He

said in a statement obtained by the Sun Sentinel that the blow was not intended to hurt the player but to build a relationship.

In February 2015, following the investigation, the district suspended Coleman for three days.

Piper hired him to coach the Bengals afterward, though the criminal charge was pending.

Coleman told the Sun Sentinel on Wednesday that he’s confident he’s in no danger of losing his job.

“The school board has already done a thorough investigation,” he said.

Piper athletic director Chandler Sanzari, who was David Coleman, unaware of Coleman’s conviction and sentence in the child abuse case, declined comment Wednesday.

Calls to Cerra and district superintendent Robert Runcie were not immediately returned.

Coleman is entering his second season at Piper, where he now also teaches math. The Bengals finished 9-2 last season, making the postseason for the first time since 2003 before falling to Flanagan in their playoff opener.

Following Coleman’s recent arrest, the court ordered him to have no contact with his accuser.

According to police, the woman, who is mother to Coleman’s one-month-old daughter, brought the infant to Coleman’s apartment late on July 12. The two argued that night and continued the next morning after the woman, who admitted she’d been drinking, refused to leave, according to the incident report.

The accuser called 911 to report Coleman had assaulted her while he was calling police to have her removed. He said he had to get to practice and did not want to leave her there.

The woman told officers Coleman had squeezed her face to stop her from yelling and had twice pushed her, once into the bathroom door, where she hit her head.

Coral Springs police found no signs of physical injury.

SUN SENTINEL FILE PHOTO David Coleman was sentenced Tuesday in a battery case from May 2014, when he punched a player while serving as an assistant coach at Taravella.