(KCAL/CNN) -- A youth football team in California is at the center of a controversy.

Coaches for the Pop Warner team is accused of offering players cash in exchange for hurting players on opposing teams.

The 2011 Tustin Red Cobras Pop Warner football team went undefeated in the regular season.

"This was a team that knew it was on the verge of greatness and, indeed, it went to the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Florida and, because it knew that it had the players in place to get that far, it was probably willing to push the boundaries of what was acceptable and they got carried away," said Frank Michadeit of the Orange County Register.

John Zanelli, then an assistant coach for the team of 10 and 11-year-olds, now says other coaches on the team offered the boys $20 bounties for big hits on opposing players.

Zanelli declined to speak on camera with CNN, but, off camera, confirmed details of the alleged bounty program first reported by Keith Sharon and Frank Mickadeit of the Orange County Register.

"All in all, we now have six parents and players saying that this happened," said Mickadeit. "Six out of a team of about 22 that confirmed that it happened. So, there's little doubt in my mind that this happened."

Darren Crawford, the head coach of the Cobras, calls the claims nonsense.

"I've been a Team Mom for him for two of those four years, so I'm not what you would consider a casual bystander on the sidelines, I was at practices. I was at the games and I've never once heard anything mentioned in the nature of any kind of bounty," said Elizabeth Childs, a team mother.

The local conference initially investigated the claims and called them unfounded or overstated.

Late Thursday, the National Pop Warner organization suspended Crawford and the Tustin league president, saying, "in light of new information and players coming forward who did not participate in the league investigation, National Pop Warner will intervene to further investigate..."

Crawford and other parents with boys still on the team say Zanelli's claims are the result of a vendetta stemming from long-running disputes with the local Pop Warner Conference.

Zanelli has since left and formed his own team in another league.

The Cobras 2011 season ended with a loss in the national semifinals.

KCAL/CNN