Pushing Incident Account by Umpire Is Questioned : High school athletics: School administrators say videotape shows Katella softball coach didn’t shove game official to ground.

ANAHEIM —  One day after Katella softball Coach Rhonda Weyer pushed an umpire and a player during a game against Esperanza, people who viewed the incident on videotape have questioned umpire Mike Callahan’s version of what transpired.

Katella Athletic Director Tom Danley said Friday night that three school administrators viewed the tape and told him that Callahan remained on his feet. Callahan told The Times he had been pushed to the ground by Weyer before she grabbed Esperanza catcher Julia Cappelli and pushed her.

Callahan, who indicated he mailed a report to the Southern Section office on Friday detailing Weyer’s ejection from Thursday’s Katella-Esperanza softball game, left Friday for a 10-day trip and could not be reached.

The incident took place after Cappelli landed on top of Mendy Van Son, who was tagged out while trying to score the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning of a game Esperanza eventually won in 12 innings, 3-2.

Weyer, in her eighth year as Katella’s coach, would not comment on either her status as coach or the incident as described by Callahan, but Esperanza Coach Cyndi Watson said Friday that Callahan did not fall to the ground.

“(Weyer) pushed (Callahan) to get to Julia but I don’t recall seeing him knocked to the ground,” said Watson. “But that’s secondary to the fact she grabbed an opposing player.”

Linda Whitney, Katella’s assistant athletic director and an assistant with the junior varsity softball team, spoke to Weyer on Thursday and that night recalled Weyer’s account to The Times: “The catcher pounced on our (runner) and she went up to see if our player was OK, and she pushed the catcher out of the way and went on to see if our player was OK. Mike Callahan was going to write it up for CIF and indicated to Rhonda that he had to eject her even though he felt she was just going to aid her player. That’s what she recounted to me.”