Parent sentenced for assaulting coach

? A father who punched his two daughters’ high school soccer coach was sentenced Friday in Jackson County District Court to four years probation and fined $2,000.

The fight between Joseph Soto and Blue Springs High School girls’ soccer coach Steven Bettlach happened in May after Bettlach said he wouldn’t let the two teens rejoin the team they had quit a week ago.

According to the documents, Soto then punched Bettlach in his classroom, afterward standing over him and saying, “You better not report this, or I will come after you.”

Bettlach was later taken for medical treatment and received 12 stitches to close a wound on his upper lip.

As part of his probation, Judge Jeffrey Bushur said Soto would be under house arrest except to go to work. He also cannot have any contact with Bettlach, cannot be on the grounds of Blue Springs High School and cannot consume alcohol or drugs.