Ten members of a Pennsylvania high school football team, including four of its coaches, have been charged in a brutal hazing scandal that led to the cancelation of the season after a player was stomped with cleats and prodded in the buttocks with a broomstick.
The players and coaches from the Cheltenham High School allegedly assaulted their 15-year-old teammate in the locker room during two separate incidents in 2025, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office announced on Wednesday.
The first alleged incident was recorded by two juvenile players on Aug. 15, 2025, and shared with teammates and other students during the fall semester, according to prosecutors.
While the team changed after practice, the shocking footage showed several players holding their sophomore teammate down while another player used a broomstick to poke at the boy’s buttocks, according to a grand jury filing.
Multiple witnesses saw several players, including Isaiah Simpson, 18, kicking or stopping on the victim during a second incident on Sept. 3, 2025.
The same juvenile from the first incident again used a broomstick to poke at his butt.
The victim told investigators that he was wearing football equipment and had curled up in a ball to protect his head while he was being punched, kicked and stomped in the head and groin with cleats by the crew of teammates.
He also said the group was trying to “poke him in the butt with a broomstick,” and said the broomstick did not go “in” but made contact with his butt cheek over his shorts, prosecutors said.
Though no coaches were in the locker room when the hazing attack unfolded, four coaches learned about the second incident shortly after.
Volunteer coach Ralph Burnley, 60, was giving the victim a ride home following practice, when the teen told him he’d been “jumped” and had injured his genital area — prompting Burnley to call head coach Terence Tolbert, 55.
That call led to several text messages between coaches and then a group phone call with the victim, where assistant head coach Darian “DJ” McFadden, 42, and Tolbert allegedly told the teen they would take care of it — and asked him not to tell his mother what happened.
The coaches, including assistant coach Benjamin Johnson III, 45, decided to address the incident with the team rather than contact the boy’s mother or the school over fears that it would put the team in jeopardy.
All four were each hit with endangering the welfare of a child and conspiracy to endanger the welfare of a child charges.
Simpson, 18, was also slapped with several charges, including conspiracy to aggravated assault, simple assault, and recklessly endangering another person. Josiah Peeler, 18, was charged with false swearing.
The remaining four unidentified players were juveniles at the time and face a variety of charges. Their names have not been made public due to their age.
“These assaults on a football player were not the typical goofing around by teammates. These were crimes,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a statement.
The victim’s mother eventually learned about the second attack a few days after it took place from a family member who had heard about the incident from other parents.
When the worried mom found out, she took her son to urgent care, where he was diagnosed with a contusion to his penis, authorities said.
Soon after, Cheltenham administrators were alerted to the alleged hazing through an anonymous reporting app and contacted the police. In response, administrators suspended the football team’s season on Oct. 17, 2025, and soon after canceled it altogether.
“Numerous witnesses, many reluctant to share what they saw and knew, testified about what occurred in the Cheltenham High School locker room on these two occasions and testified about actions taken by some of the football coaches after the assaults,” Steele continued.
“After carefully considering all of the testimony and evidence, including reviewing the recovered videos of one of the assaults, the Grand Jury recommended charges against the four juveniles, two other football players and four coaches.”
Arrangements are now being made for the football team coaches and players to turn themselves in to police, authorities said.
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