Current Indianapolis Colts linebackers coach and former Colts player Cato June’s son was the victim of racist chants at his youth baseball game.
On Sunday, June’s son pitched at a youth baseball game and was bullied with racial epithets hurled at him, the 42-year-old former Super Bowl champion announced this week. June took to Twitter to launch a thread denouncing his son’s treatment.
Monkey Chants At The Mound
“Yesterday at my sons baseball game, he was pitching,” June tweeted. “The opposing team started to make monkey chants while he was on the mound. I am here in Indy and they are in Texas so My wife called me during the inning going off. I am crushed they were subjected to just plain old hate.
“Hate is taught and the fact that people are poisoning young minds further infuriated me. CJ handled it with more class than I ever could have. He said he felt alone out there as the only black kid playing and only his mom there to have his back.”
Hate is taught and the fact that people are poisoning young minds further infuriated me. CJ handled it with more class than I ever could have. He said he felt alone out there as the only black kid playing and only his mom there to have his back.
— Coach June (@CatoJune) May 2, 2022
A seven-year NFL veteran, June was a 2003 sixth-round draftee to the Colts. The 2006 Pro Bowl player started 45 games during his four seasons in Indianapolis and was a member of the Super Bowl XLI champion Colts that defeated the Chicago Bears.
The NFL Vet
June was the Colts’ leading tackler during the 2007 Super Bowl championship season. Although his longest NFL tenure was three years with the Colts, he also played in the NFL for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a year and was a member of the Houston Texans and Chicago Bears.
En route to his pro career, June played at the University of Michigan, making his high school alma mater, Anacostia High School, in economically ravaged southeast Washington, D.C., proud.
A standout youth athlete in four sports — football, basketball, track and field, and baseball — as a senior June reportedly was regarded heavily as the best high school football player in Washington, D.C.
New Beginnings
His last professional football stint was in 2010 as a member of the Omaha Nighthawks of the United Football League before being released under a year later in 2011.
“You want to close the door, you don’t want the door to close on you,” June said to local FOX 59 Indianapolis after his one season in the UFL.
June has a passion for youth sports, and in 2011, he was named athletics director and defensive coordinator at his high school alma mater, eventually taking over as head football coach.
Shepherding Young Ambition
June spread his coaching chops across D.C., becoming Howard University’s running backs coach in 2016, safeties coach from 2017-to 2018, and the university’s linebackers coach in 2019.
I told him that you are never alone because God has us covered!
All praise to the most high 🙌🏾— Coach June (@CatoJune) May 2, 2022
“I always wanted to be involved with kids, and when I got done playing, I went right back to high school,” June continued. “It was a great fit for me. I was AD and head coach at my high school. I got thrown into the fire.”
Now shepherding his son’s athletic ambitions, June gave the best advice to him in the face of adversity in one last tweet.
“I told him that you are never alone because God has us covered! All praise to the most high.”
