Bad Acts - 2011
Baltimore, MD - December 21, 2011 - Ugly Baltimore HS Brawl Captured On Film. Who To Blame? You Guessed It. They Blame The Referees. This one was ugly. The fight involved spectators and players. Chairs were thrown, and the Washington Post reports that "spectators threw other spectators onto the floor from the stands." Police ultimately intervened, using pepper spray to disperse the crowd. See Fight Ends Cardozo Basketball Game vs. ConneXions School For The Arts In Baltimore by James Wagner, Washington Post, December 22, 2011; and for video see New Details Emerge In High School Basketball Game Fight In Baltimore, reported by Roz Plater, Fox-5 TV, Washington, D.C., December 22, 2011. Oh, yes, if you're wondering about those new details that Fox TV alluded to. Well, surely the spectators aren't so uncivilized as to be blamed for touching off a riot. Someone has to be at fault. But who? You guessed it. Those awful referees. Yes, the barbarity of the masses is not their fault. It's that guy in stripes who's to blame. Here's the quote from Fox TV. "Cardozo students tell Fox 5 that tensions had been escalating during the game because of controversial calls from the referee." That says it all. What a crock of crap. What really happened is a bunch of people lack character and restraint, can't own up to it, and so they blame the one group of people who can't defend themselves.
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Buffalo, NY - December 8, 2011 - High School Hoops Team Suspended For Racist Pre-Game Chant. Oh those witty white racists. They're so clever. Buffalo's Kenmore East High School had the gall to chant, "One, two, three. N word" before taking the floor. Not once, but before every game. When Tyra Batts, the lone African-American on the team objected and even fought a teammate over the incident, the chant became public knowledge. Interestingly, Batts verbally objected before she fought over the matter, and was told that the chant was a tradition. Yes, racist white folks and their traditions. I remember when these types had a tradition of holding nice little picnics in the woods with black folks swinging from the poplar trees, but I don't think anybody would support the old tradition of lynching anymore. Of course, the tradition of screaming, "one, two, three, n word" is probably just too much fun to stop. Anyway, a bureaucratic justice was done. All the girls who engaged in the n word chant were suspended for one game, and two school days. Batts received a five day suspension for fighting. The letter of the law was followed, and I'm sure that Batts has learned a lesson in bureaucratic justice. Now, the truth of the matter is that Batts had to receive a five day suspension for fighting. After all, she did have non-fight remedies at her disposal. Batts got justice. However, there's no way that the girls who chanted, "One, two, three. N word" got justice. They got a standard bureaucratic penalty, and this bureaucratic justice left them with a lesser penalty than Batts got. That might not matter if they got a heavy dose of public shame, but it doesn't appear that they got that. Thus, I would have to say that while bureaucratic justice was done, true justice was not. For more, see Basketball Players Suspended For N-Word by Sandra Tan, Buffalo News, December 8, 2011 (includes video of Tyra Batts); Buffalo High School Girls Basketball Team Suspended After Using Racial Slur by Nina Mandell, New York Daily News, December 9, 2011; Buffalo Area High School Basketball Players Suspended For Using Racial Slurs, Sporting News article republished on Syracuse.com, December 13, 2011.
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Baytown, TX - November 26, 2011 - Brawl Mars Texas Football Playoff Game. An ugly fourth quarter bench-clearing brawl was topped off by an even uglier post-game handshake brawl. Police officers on hand had to resort to pepper spray to break up the post-game fights. One big question: why did they even bother to let these teams have a post-game handshake line after they'd had their fourth quarter fight? Sometimes, you just need to clear the field even if it means dispensing with post-game handshakes. Safety - and common sense - should always come before formal gestures - and here the post-game handshake was a formal gesture. See Melee Erupts Between LM, Ozen Players After Game by Jordan Godwin, The Galveston Daily News, November 27, 2011.
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Long Island, NY - November 1, 2011 - Long Island Tennis Finals Postponed Due To Rules Dispute. At the end of the day, this comes down to a dirty little secret about team tennis. An unethical coach may try to alter his lineup to gain a competitive edge. In team tennis, I'm supposed to put my one up against your one, my two against your two, and so on. The problem, of course, is that you don't know who my one and my two are. You also don't know how my doubles pairings impact my singles pairings. There are rules, but at the end of the day you've got to have trust. I have no idea what happened in this Long Island tennis rules issue, but it almost certainly had to do with rankings and trust, and now it's a national embarrassment - albeit, a relatively small scale national embarrassment. See LI Girls Tennis Championship Ends In Rules Dispute, Newsday, November 2, 2011.
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Dumfries, VA - Chaos In Football Post-Game Handshake. Virginia High School football brawl breaks out after Virginia's Hylton High beats rival Potomac High School. This brawl was bad enough to require police and school officials to break it up. See Brawl Breaks Out During Post-Game Handshake of Hylton-Potomac Game, by Robert Daski, insidenova.com, October 29, 2011. Of course, what would a good post-game handshake be without some local waxing philosophical about it? This incident has its muse, and that muse is David Fawcett, a local scribe for the Virginia News and Messenger. The message, of course, is that the post-game handshake is worth doing even if sometimes things go wrong. See An Important Lesson From Last Week's Potomac-Hylton Post-Game Handshake, insidenova.com, November 3, 2011. This Virginia high school incident is timely as it comes in the wake of the post-game dustup between NFL coaches Jim Harbaugh and Jim Schwartz. For those who like some history, a bit more thought, a better counterargument, and even a survey, the renowned ethicist and sportsmanship expert Michael Josephson may be more in order than Fawcett. See Is The Post-Game Handshake Worth Keeping? Cast Your Vote, Michael Josephson Sportsmanship blog, josephsoninstitute.org, November 1, 2011.
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Wayne, NJ - October 29, 2011 - Cloud Of Violence Mars New Jersey Team's Football Success. Nine Wayne Hills (New Jersey) High School football players were charged with aggravated assault after an incident in which two teenagers were violently beaten at a house party on October 29, 2011. The players played immediately after the incident, but intense criticism led to their School Superintendent banning them. The ban was reversed by the Board of Education, and the team advanced to the state title game. See Wayne Hill Reaches State Title Game As All Nine Players Accused In Beating Have Ban Lifted by Matthew Stanmyre, New Jersey Star-Ledger, November 18, 2011. Then a series of negative news articles and public outcry shamed the Wayne Board of Education into doing the right thing, and banning the players. This touched off a legal battle as the players simply couldn't accept that there might be some consequences for their alleged misconduct. See Judge Denies Wayne Hills Football Players' Appeal To Play In State Final by Mike Vorkunov, New Jersey Star-Ledger, December 1, 2011. The players will ask the Board to lift their ban since they couldn't win in court. Will the players prevail, and play in the game. We'll know soon since the game is on Saturday.
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Indianapolis, IN - October 21, 2011 - Trifecta of Stupidity! Trevor Borom, the head basketball coach at Indianapolis’s Manual High School, just committed three dumb acts rolled into one. First, Borom drove over to a girls’ house in the middle of the day while her parents weren’t home. Borom was allegedly going to discuss the girls’ grades. Error number one: grown men don’t make social visits to young girls’ houses. Error number 2 might have been worse. Coach Borom got into a fight with a fifteen year old boy while visiting the girl. Error number 3 may be pure bad luck, but it’s still an error. Borom got caught on film. Can you say, “career suicide?” See Manual High Coach Accused of Biting, Fighting Student, Fox 59 TV Indianapolis, IN, Oct. 21, 2011; also, see Coach Suspended After Fight, Indianapolis Business Journal, October 21, 2011.
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Warrenton, GA - October 14, 2011 - Warren County High School Football Team Attacked, Coach Beaten After 21-2 Win Over Hancock Central High. Warren County High got a nasty reception after winning their road game against Hancock Central. Their locker room was locked, leaving them stranded on the field. Then, the opposing players and fans swarmed them. Warren County Coach David Daniels stepped in between two players, and a Hancock player hit him over the head with a helmet, causing injuries that required surgery. The brutal beating is under investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. See Players Attacking Opposing High School Coach: What Is Happening With Youth Sports?, by Maureen Downey, Atlanta Journal-Constitution blog, October 17, 2011; and
GBI Will Investigate Football Fight, WXIA TV Channel 11 (Atlanta), October 20, 2011. An interesting side note, about Maureen Downey's blog. Downey appears to have just discovered that youth sports can be violent. In a separate blog posting, she asks whether the concerns about violence should lead us to consider leaving sports to recreation departments. Downey has yet to realize that club and rec sports are far more out of control than school sports is. The academic requirements, the massive organization involved in playing games, and the presence of teachers has a calming effect on high school sports. The scary thing is that even with that calming effect, school sports has a lot of violence, but it has nowhere near the violence and poor sportsmanship of rec sports. The one argument in favor of Downey's call for leaving sports to clubs and rec departments is that fewer people care about those games, leading to fewer spectators and less of a chance of a large number of spectators being involved in incidents. Still, the substantial amount of youth and recreation league incidents occurring in this country (many of which are posted on this site) gives the lie to the argument that we should get sports out of schools for safety reasons. Now, there are some valid arguments for not having sports in schools. We are, after all, one of the few countries that attempts to mix school with sports. In most countries, clubs run sports. However, safety is probably not one of the arguments for moving sports out of schools. FOLLOW UP!! Did Facebook Spark This Violence? The post-game spark is rumored to have started with Facebook insults. Allegedly, kids were involved, and there's even a text from a Hancock assistant coach that reads, "Better stay yo a** in WC." When the assistant coach stoops to this level, the kids may not have a "fighting" chance. See Football Brawl Blamed On Online Trash Talk, WTAE TV, Pittsburgh, PA (reporting on the Georgia incident), November 1, 2011; Online Trash Talk Blamed For Turning Football Rivalry Violent by Rich Phillips, CNN, November 4, 2011.
SAD AFTERMATH TO THIS INCIDENT! In February, 2012, the Warren County School Board refused to participate in the state basketball tournament in order to avoid a potential matchup with Hancock when it discovered that Hancock was in its playoff bracket. The basketball players protested the School Board decision. Whether one agrees with the School Board or not, one must acknowledge that violence at youth sports has a price. Generally, that price is a diversion of school resources into massive security, followed by a loss of administrative and teaching time for investigations, reports, and security preparation. Here, the price was the School Board concluding that on this occasion youth sports wasn't worth the trouble. Will this make the fans who attacked the Warren County High football team, and beat their coach over the head with a helmet reconsider their attitudes? Unlikely. It will probably make them worse. See Georgia School Voluntarily Forfeits Playoff Spot Rather Than Play Team Involved In Football Brawl by Cameron Smith, USA Today, February 15, 2012.
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Sacramento, CA - September 30, 2011. Sacramento Superintendent Sends Strong Message! After two football teams brawl, Sacramento Superintendent Jonathan Raymond refuses to look the other way. Superintendent Raymond didn't just suspend a few players. He told the schools that their acts were an embarrassment, and he made both teams forfeit their next game. Now, that will send a message to those teams. See Caught On Tape: Kennedy/McLatchy Football Fight, TV News 10 (Sacramento), September 30, 2011; Superintendent Cancels Games For McLatchy, Kennedy After Brawl, CBS TV 13 (Sacramento), October 3, 2011. This incident had a rather salacious postscript. Henry Lutz, Kennedy's head football coach, resigned a week after this brawl. Lutz didn't leave due to the brawl. Rather, he left after internet photos surfaced, showing him in sexually suggestive poses while clad only in a thong. See Kennedy Football Coach Resigns After Racy Internet Photo Surfaces by Matt Kawahara and Joe Davidson, Sacramento Bee, October 7, 2011.
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Greenfield, Ohio – September 29, 2011 – Every couple of years we see someone who thinks it’s funny to make a mockery of the post-game handshake by doing something offensive. We’ve seen people spit on their hands and then shake all of their unsuspecting opponents’ hands. We’ve seen people slap the opponents’ hands really hard, and we’ve even seen one person who gave a hard hit to some of her opponents. A Washington (Ohio) football player probably thought that it was witty to place a sharp object in his receiver’s glove before shaking his opponents’ hands. Of course he was wrong – he was a classless, immature fool as we all know. However, youth will occasionally be classless, immature, and foolish. We can teach our way out of these things even though they’re not pleasant. What we don’t expect to have to deal with – and aren’t all too thrilled to have to tolerate - is a trip to the hospital. But, that’s exactly what happened here as the student who used the sharp object punctured the skin of 27 of his opponents, requiring all 27 to have to go to the hospital for tetanus shots. See Police: Ohio Player Pricked Opponents In Handshake, Associated Press Article in Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 6, 2011; and 27 H.S. Football Players Pricked In Post-Game Handshake, Fox-28, Columbus, Ohio, October 7, 2011.
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Sharon, PA - September 16, 2011 - Brawl Leads To Early Ending In Pennsylvania Football Game. See Sharon, Hickory Football Players Suspended After Brawl, Associated Press Story in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 20, 2011.
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Cincinnati, OH - September 9, 2011 - "We've Got Jesus!" Cheer: Bad Act or Much Ado About Nothing?. Cincinnati's St. Xavier High School's fans managed to upset a public school coach by cheering, "We've got Jesus." Indeed, they upset opposing coach Tom Bolden of Colerain High School so much that Bolden lost his composure and yelled at the St. Xavier rooting section, confirming that he certainly didn't have Jesus - although it's not clear if St. Xavier's fans did (after all, we can safely assume that Jesus wouldn't taunt a rival team). The St. Xavier fans were apparently retorting to Colerain's chant, "We've got girls," which St. Xavier, an all boys school, most decidedly doesn't have. One should not taunt an opponent - even by invoking Jesus. However, as taunts go this was relatively benign. Indeed, it is safe to conclude that two groups of sportsmanlike people could have engaged in this taunting, and walked away thinking that it was witty fun. So, one must conclude that either these were not two groups of sportsmanlike people or that something else occurred that turned two relatively benign taunts into an unsportsmanlike incident - albeit a relatively minor one. One can also conclude that a coach who runs over to lambaste an opposing school's fans for such a relatively benign taunt may need to look in the mirror and figure out how he can attempt to embody, if not Jesus, at least someone who more closely resembles an educational leader. This was more of a teachable moment than an opportunity to harshly pass judgment on and then rip into opposing fans. An educational leader should have handled this a lot better. Still, it is an interesting story. Who would have thought that Jesus, a coach, the composition of a student body, and a football game could all be invoked towards such a negative end? I wouldn't have guessed it. But, I do think I can say with complete confidence that Jesus would not have been too pleased to have been invoked as part of this foolishness. See HS Football Coach Livid Over Catholic School's 'We've Got Jesus' Chant by Rick Chandler, Off The Bench Blog on NBC Sports, September 15, 2011; Colerain Coach Upset At St. X's Fans' Postgame Chant, WLWT News 5, Cincinnati, Ohio, September 14, 2011.
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Atlanta, GA - September 9, 2011 - Helmet Beat-Down Mars Atlanta Football Game. Adam Chumley, from Georgia's Northside Christian Academy, couldn't handle losing so he reportedly grabbed an opposing player's helmet and commenced beating that player over the head with the helmet. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Chumley will be charged with misdemeanor battery. Sounds more like a felony to me. See Teen Faces Charges In Helmet Attack by Alexis Stevens, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 9, 2011.
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Washington, D.C. - September 3, 2011 - Brawl plus ineligible players gets D.C. Football Coach fired. See Dunbar HS Forfeits Next Two League Games, Washington, D.C. Public Schools Press Release, September 12, 2011.
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South Bend, IN - September 2, 2011 - Gehrig Dieter from South Bend's Elkhart Central High School didn't run up the score. He may not even be a poor sport, but his coach is. Dieter's coach played him throughout the fourth quarter of a 63-10 blowout win so that Dieter could set the national record for receiving yards in a game. Yes, the opponents certainly noticed that the team that was clobbering them continued to pass the ball to their top receiver. The game was marred by bad blood and poor sportsmanship. This didn't play well locally. See Do Records In High School Football Trump Sportsmanship? by Kyle Neddenriep, Indianapolis Star, September 16, 2011. It didn't play well nationally either. See East/West/North/South Xtra: OK, It's A Record, But ... by Rich Emert in Rich Emert's High School Football Notebook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 8, 2011.
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Kirkland, WA - September 2, 2011 - Pouting Coach Pulls Football Team After Disagreement Over Fumble Call. That's right. A high school coach pulled his team off the field because he thought his player was down, but the refs thought he fumbled. This happened with 10:17 left in the 4th quarter with Washington's Garfield High trailing Lake Washington High 14-0. Coach Kelvin Goliday, the Garfield coach, pulled his team, and called timeout to complain about the fumble call. The officials told Goliday that the call could not be challenged. So Goliday pulled his team and forfeited the game. Goliday later sought to justify his acts by saying he was looking out for player safety. The facts don't back him up. Let's just be honest here: A high school coach blew a gasket because he didn't like a call. He tried to complain about it, but the referees didn't want to hear it. The coach then lost control of himself and tried to make a point by having his team walk off the field. When the coach got criticized for a lack of professionalism after the game, he pulled out the safety card. BS. This is just a chump who can't handle losing - and if he had even the remotest amount of fortitude he'd have told his team that the game wasn't over and they still had a chance to win. Garfield High has done the right thing and placed Coach Goliday on administrative leave. Presumably, they'll fire him in a few weeks. But, don't take my word for it. Here are the links to the stories about Coach Kelvin Goliday. File his name, and if he ever shows up to coach at your school, tell him we don't hire coaches who lack guts, can't display sportsmanship, and try to blame refs for their own failings. What a loser. See Lake Washington Wins First Football Game After Garfield Forfeits by Megan Managan, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 3, 2011; Garfield H.S. Forfeits To Lake Washington After Fumble Call, King 5 News, September 6, 2011; and Garfield Coach Says Safety Concerns Led To Forfeit by Bill Swartz, MyNorthwest.com, September 7, 2011. Perhaps the most complete coverage of this matter can be found at yahoo where Cameron Smith did a fine job pulling all the parts of this story together. See Coach's Disagreement With Ref Leads To Team Walk off, Forfeit by Cameron Smith, Yahoo Sports, September 7, 2011.
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Sarasota, FL - August 27, 2011 - Referee Attacked In Florida Youth Football Game. This one's caught on film, and the film does not match the television headline or story. The story is entitled Sheriff's Deputies Investigate Brawl Between Coach, Referee, And Youth Football Players reported by James Jackson, WFMT - TV, August 27, 2011. The reporter states that the referee had a heated discussion with the coach. Now, if you click on the link and watch the video you will see that the referee did not have a "brawl" with the coach. He also did not have a heated discussion with the coach. Rather, the video shows a coach who is clearly heated being restrained and then breaking free to pursue a referee who is walking away. The referee clearly had addressed something that took place on some other part of the field prior to being pursued by the coach. However, there is nothing in the referee's demeanor that indicates that he wants to confront the coach. Unless there's something that we don't know, this looks like a news station that is trying a bit too hard to be "fair" and not call an assault an assault. For far more accurate coverage of a referee being attacked, see Referee Plans To Keep Officiating by Halle Stockton, St. Petersburg Herald-Tribune, September 2, 2011. This story makes it clear that the referee was attacked. He didn't have a hot dispute and then start fighting.
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August 24, 2011 - Palm Beach, FL - Referees Call Off Florida High School Football Game After Massive First-Half Brawl. The Florida High School Athletic Association swiftly delivered a penalty that would certainly deter most schools from ever being in this position again, suspending 30 players and imposing total fines of $6,000 on the two schools. See Inside The Skirmish At Palm Beach Central And Other Thoughts On The Game by Jeff Greer, Palm Beach Post Blog, August 25, 2011; and Palm Beach High School Results and Schedule, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, August 31, 2011.
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Sumter, GA - August 7, 2011 - Any league can have a fight. The good leagues try to prevent them in advance and take strong actions afterward. After two American Legion teams scuffled during a tournament, the American Legion Baseball League took a strong stance, declaring a double forfeit, thereby disqualifying both teams from the tournament. See Douglasville, Carolina Team Forfeit After Fight In Tourney, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 8, 2011.
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Sandy, UT - August 6, 2011 - School Intrasquad Scrimmage Embroiled In Racial Controversy. Utah's Alta High School holds an annual "Black and White Game", the school's intrasquad scrimmage. The black and white references are to the school colors. One team wears black; the other white. Sounds good in theory, and it probably worked for years, but youth being youth and the title of the game lending itself to off-color racial hijinks, trouble was inevitable and trouble came to Utah. Last spring, a student cheered for the "white" team by dressing in all white, and topping it off with a white pillow case hoodie. Can we say KKK. Well, the school may have been able to let this pass, but at the same time the student wore his KKK hoodie, other students - in an apparently unrelated incident - e-mailed photos of burning crosses. Local news reports don't indicate whom they sent those photos to, but the whole thing smelled. Can we say, "game on?" Alta High pulled out the whole sensitivity playbook ... apparently with good reason. Alta started sensitivity training, and while it will still play its intrasquad game, it won't call the game the "Black and White Game." This generation of kids isn't ready for it. The troubling thing about this incident and some other similar incidents is that young people use racial codes, but claim they're either ignorant of the code, entitled to "take back" the code word or acts, or entitled to use the code words or acts. The clearest example is the frequent use of the "N" word amongst today's youth, but that's just one of many examples. One is never quite sure whether this generation is unaware of the rules they flaunt, aware of the rules but unconcerned, or simply out to provoke. In this case, the student has claimed ignorance! He only sought to make a statement about the "Black and White Game" and is shocked that people have read racial animus into his "neutral" act of wearing a KKK hood. There are no easy answers here, and Alta High can only hold its breath that some of its students don't decide to uphold the honor of their lost title through some sort of ugly protest .. like having a whole lot of students wearing white sheets and hoods. For more, see Alta Principal Says Goodbye As 3 Students Are Cited In Recent Race-Related Incidents by Pat Reavy and Molly Farmer, Salt Lake City Deseret News, April 1, 2011, and A Lot Of Gray Areas About Alta's Black & White Game by Randy Hollis, Salt Lake City Deseret news, August 6, 2011.
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San Jose, CA - July 2, 2011 - We all know that poor sportsmanship can lead to some dangerous situations, but seldom do we see a situation where a sore loser's post-game reaction can be deadly. However, when a trained martial artist lost his cool, returned to the gym after he lost in a high school taekwondo tournament, and delivered a roundhouse kick to the face of the unsuspecting boy who had defeated him the results were nearly deadly. The San Jose Mercury News reports that the victim of this unprovoked attack came within inches of having his nose bone driven back into his face, which would have killed him. As it was, the victim lost several teeth, and obviously needed medical treatment. The Mercury News reports that the attacker told investigators that he was upset with the contest official's rulings. So, there you have it. The perfect defense. Yes, the loser has invoked the bad old ref made me do it defense. This time nobody's buying it. See Taekwondo Fallout: Loser Booked On Felony Assault Following Match by Sean Webby, San Jose Mercury News, July 8, 2011.
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Castle Rock, CO - June 26, 2011 - For years, we've told spectators that they could be prosecuted for fighting at athletic contests. But what do you do when the prosecutor is one of the fighters. Well, the City of Castle Rock is confronting that problem. News reports indicate that what started as some parents complaining about a "bad call" in a youth baseball league morphed into a brawl involving six adults. DenverPost.com reports that two of the parents and the town prosecutor are facing criminal charges. See Parents Charged After Castle Rock Youth Baseball Brawl by Will Ripley, DenverPost.com, July 11, 2011. Also see Colorado Parents Charged After Youth Baseball Brawl, AP Wire Service Story in USA Today, July 11, 2011.
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East Meadow, NY - June 20, 2011 - Mom allegedly sends threatening letters after her son was cut from a Little League team. See Cops: Mom Sent Threat When Son Didn't Make Team, CBSNews.com, June 20, 2011.
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Burleson, TX - June 16, 2011 - Coach Gives Umpire A Facial: Caught On Film. See Youth Baseball Coach Shoves Umpire In Face by David Schechter, KHOU.com, June 16, 2011. Think that's bad? It gets worse. There were two attacks on umps that day. See Police Called To Second Youth Baseball Coach Fight In North Texas by David Schechter, WFAA.com, June 24, 2011.
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Clovis, CA - June 4, 2011 - Profanity Costs School State Track Title. Loyola High School pole vaulter Evan Barr uttered a very loud profanity after missing his final vault at the California High School State Track and Field Championships. If Barr had made his final jump, he would have been the California pole vault champ. Instead he clinched third place ... until he reacted to his miss with the high volume profanity referenced above. Indeed, some accounts hold that the profanity could be heard in the stands. The pole vault officials disqualified Barr for use of profanity, which is a violation of track rules. Obviously, this was a bad moment for Barr as he cost himself a medal. However, Barr's bad moment got worse when the team scores were tallied and Loyola lost to Long Beach Poly by three points: points Loyola would have earned if Barr hadn't been disqualified. Barr's loud profanity gained national media coverage. It was a profanity heard across the country. See Track: Disqualification Cost Loyola State Title by Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, Varsity Times Insider Blog, June 5, 2011; and Pole Vaulter's Curse Word Costs Team State Track Title by Cameron Smith, Prep Rally Sports Blog on Yahoo Sports, June 7, 2011.
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Fletcher, NC - May 28, 2011 - Samuel Cody, a 37 year-old assistant baseball coach, has been charged with assault. WYFF TV in Greenville reported the story, stating that Letcher police claim Cody hit a 16-year-old who was serving as an umpire in a baseball league for 11 and 12 year-olds. Parents on Cody's team allegedly have reported that the 16-year-old umpire attacked Cody first. It would be extremely rare for an umpire to attack a coach, and I note that it is alarmingly common for child sports officials to be attacked by adult coaches. In short, I believe the umpire. We'll see what happens with this one. See Youth Coach Charged With Assault After Umpire Attack, WYFF TV 4, Greenville, NC, May 30, 2011, and Police: NC Coach Punched Teen Umpire During Little League, reported by Jonathan Carlson, WSPA TV Channel 7, Asheville, NC.
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Columbus, GA - May 4, 2011 - Soccer fight at end of playoff game overshadows the game itself - of course, most big fights do. See Fight Overshadows Brookstone's Double-Overtime Win In First Round of GHSA Class A Boys Soccer State Playoffs Against Riverside Military by Chris White, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, May 5, 2011.
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Sacramento, CA - April 29, 2011 - High School Swim Coach Pulls Swimmer Out of Pool By Hair - Coach Forgets That There Are Lot's Of Cameras At Swim Meets. See Parent Accuses High School Swim Coach of Assault, KTXL-Fox40, Sacramento, CA, May 2, 2011. It is not clear why the coach was upset. Various people have claimed that some of the swimmers were misbehaving. Others claim the swimmers weren't giving it their all. We may never know. What we do know is that Geoff Capell, the assistant swim coach, won't be coaching at Roseville High anymore, and it may be a while before he's coaching anywhere. Capell may also be charged with misdemeanor battery according to some media sources. Time will tell.
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Miami, FL - April 14, 2011 – School Suspends Volleyball Player For Allegedly Spiking Ball At Referee, Breaking Her Nose! Hear referee Olivia Harrington’s perspective at Referee Talks About Alleged Attack By Player, WSVN TV, Miami, FL, April 14, 2011. WSVN reports that the student wrote on his Facebook page that the incident looks bad, but it was just an accident. See a report on the student’s perspective at Volleyball Player Comments About Alleged Attack, WSVN TV, Miami, FL, April 14, 2011.
School officials who investigated this matter clearly believed that the student didn't spike the referee accidentally. The school officials suspended the student for the last month of the school year. One reason the school officials would be inclined to believe that this was not an accident is the appalling lack of regret showed by the student’s family. The student’s mother is quoted as saying that the charges are a “way of destroying a young man’s life”, and that the referee was “ill prepared to deal with any unfavorable situation.” Well, that sure doesn’t sound too sympathetic. I can see how a school may be unimpressed by a family with that attitude, and I can see how people with that attitude could have a difficult time convincing school investigators that an act that looks like a pretty bad, intentional act was actually a mistake. Perhaps somebody could have told the family to say that it was an accident, and they’re very sorry that the official was injured. An expression of remorse and a bit of sincerity is more compelling than attempting to demonize somebody who got injured.
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Millington, TN - April 9, 2011 - Briarcrest, Houston Receive Two-Year Postseason Baseball Ban by John Varlas, Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 14, 2011. The Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association (TSSAA) issues a severe, but very justified, penalty after an ugly brawl involving bench personnel, parents, and coaches. A school administrator was quoted as saying that he's never been involved in a penalty this severe. Severe, yes. However, severe penalties are sometimes needed. Or, to put it another way, why should any organization let bad actors get a reward? Tennessee had a terrible weekend. This brawl, and an alleged attempted murder at another baseball contest led one prep sports reporter to ask, Prep Sports, What's Happening To Sportsmanship? by David Boyd, The Memphis Edge Blog in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 12, 2011.
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San Diego, CA - April 9, 2011 - Youth Football Coach Arrested For Felony Battery In Recruiting Dispute. A San Diego police office stated that San Diego youth football coach Saivaauli Savaiinea attacked Mark Cannon, a parent who may coach a rival team. The dispute appears to have centered around Cannon recruiting some of Coach Savaiinea's players. The officer reported that Coach Savaiinea punched and kicked Mr. Cannon, and that Mr. Cannon tripped, struck his head, and suffered a head injury in trying to back away from the coach's attack. Cannon's head injuries were severe enough to require hospitalization. See Coach Arrested At Lincoln Park High School, Channel 10 News San Diego, April 9, 2011 (note - the school appears to be named Abraham Lincoln High School not Lincoln Park High School).
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Dyersburg, TN - April 8, 2011 - Senior Crosses Line Between Poor Sportsmanship and Attempted Murder. Adam Purvis, a senior at Dyersburg High School in Tennessee, is charged with attempted murder after a heated high school baseball game. WMCTV Channel 5 News in Dyersburg cites witnesses saying that Purvis gunned his car into a crowd and ran over a student from a rival high school. See Mother Wants Answers After Her Son Is Run Over At School, reported by Justin Hanson, WMCTV News 5, April 15, 2011, and Teens Witness Crockett County HS Student Get Run Over At Baseball Game, reported by Danya Bacchus, WREG TV 3, Memphis, April 8, 2011.
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Chattanooga, TN - April 8, 2011 - Post-game softball fight breaks out where girls from a school not involved in the game go after one of the teams in the game. Is this revenge, thuggery, payback? We'll never know. Worse, one of the school districts involved said that since the fight broke out after the game ended, this isn't a school matter. Of course, it's a school matter. If the school district took a stronger stand, they might send a message that this stuff isn't tolerated. See Fight Breaks Out After Brainerd High School Softball Game, WDEF.com, TV 12, Chattanooga, April 11, 2011.
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Spartanburg, S.C. - April 8, 2011 - 15 baseball players suspended after baseball fight in South Carolina. Dorman High School and Boiling Springs High School have had finer hours than this embarrassing display of poor sportsmanship. See 15 high School Baseball Players Suspended For Fight, reported by James Gilbert, WLTX.com TV (Columbia, SC), April 14, 2011.
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El Paso, TX - April 2, 2011 - New Bat Rules Spark Parents, Coaches Brawl in Texas Little League Game. In the past year, the National Federation and a lot of youth leagues have implemented bat rules to limit the speed at which balls fly off of aluminum and composite bats. It's a safety issue, but the new bat regulations lead to less offense. Thus, there are always concerns about a player tampering with a bat to juice it up. That appears to have triggered this brawl. See Deputies Look Into Fight at Youth Baseball Game by Adriana M. Chavez, El Paso Times, April 5, 2011.
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Oxford, NC - March 22, 2011 - Coach Injured Trying To Break Up Bench-Clearing Baseball Brawl. See NCHSAA Looking Into Baseball Fight by Nick Stevens, highschoolot.com, March 23, 2011. Close play at plate triggers brawl between Raleigh's Cardinal Gibbons High and Oxford's Webb High.
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San Francisco, CA - March 20, 2011- Angry Player KOs Soccer Official. See Soccer Ref Kicked In Face, Knocked Out Over Call, ABC TV Channel 7, San Francisco, March 23, 2011; and Soccer Player Kicks Referee In The Face by Mike Aldax, San Francisco Examiner, March 23, 2011.
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Erie, PA - March 12, 2011 - National Christian School Athletic Association's girls' national championship game ends in a double disqualification after a bench clearing altercation. Having one's championship end in brawl that leads to both teams being disqualified is uniquely embarrassing. To its credit, the NCSAA said all the right things. Indeed, we can all have a brawl. Sometimes the measure of excellence is how we react. The NCSAA doesn't blame others. Nor did they try to downplay the incident. They stepped right up as their director Nate Hartman said, "We're just not recognizing a champion. As Christians we do believe that we bear the name of Christ. Obviously, behavior like this and actions like this are not in line with the spirit of the God whose name we bear. We should expect more of ourselves. I hope this is something that causes the schools and even the organization to ask how we could have done our role differently." See Girls Super 25 Showdown Ends Prematurely After Altercation by Jim Halley, USA Today, March 15, 2011.
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Harford County, MD - March 2, 2011 - Basketball Playoffs Marred By 50 Person Brawl - Injuries Reported In Maryland HS Basketball Game. See Harford Police Report Describes Chaotic Scene At Fallston Basketball Game, Harford Aegis, March 4, 2011.
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California - February 25, 2011 - 8 Assaults On Officials, 787 Ejected Athletes, 82 Ejected Coaches: HS Soccer Fails The Smell Test In Southern California. It's the dirty little secret of youth and high school sports, but it's not a secret anymore - at least not in Southern California. Youth and high school leagues all across the country are having a terrible time managing soccer. Soccer has more ejections and worse sportsmanship than every other sport in leagues all across the country. The CIF's Southern Section quantified the problem and found that soccer has more ejections and incidents of inappropriate behavior than all other sports combined. There are some soccer aficionados who contend that soccer lacks an intermediate step such as a technical foul in basketball. Those people are right, but they miss the point. This is not an issue that revolves around the technicality of whether a playing call is a foul or not. This is an issue about attitudes. There are no other sports in which 8 officials are assaulted in a playing season. If that happened in basketball or football there'd be a scandal, and an enormous media outcry. As sports administrators everywhere can attest, there's something wrong in the soccer community and the normal procedures of ejecting and suspending players is not sufficient to deter the problem. See CIF Officials Seeing Red Over Soccer by Cindy Rhodes, City of Industry Walnut Patch, February 25, 2011.
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DeLand, FL - February 12, 2011 - At least 100 people participate in post-game incidents after a high school basketball game. News reports indicate that "up to 30 people" were fighting. Of course, the "up to" number indicates a lack of precision, but it's the lack of precision one expects when the stands empty and everybody starts fighting. What's disturbing about this incident is the report that "about 100 DeLand High students" attacked a person while the police were escorting him to their car. When the police can't deter an attack - especially an attack on someone who's in police custody - we have to conclude that the standards of conduct at DeLand High School may be irretrievably broken. See Massive Melee Breaks Out At High School, WKMG Local 6 at ClickOrlando.com, February 14, 2011.
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Ocala, FL - February 4, 2011 - School Resource Officer Pepper Sprays Coach, Players, Spectators In Big Soccer Brawl. See Caught On Tape: High School Soccer Game Ends In Brawl by Devetta Blount, digtriad.com, February 6, 2011. David Crutchfield, the SRO, is also a sheriff's deputy. Crutchfield was working with one other security guard, and were outnumbered by a mob of fighters and intervenors.
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Baltimore, MD - February 4, 2011 - Pepper Spray Shuts Down Hgh School Basketball Brawl, the grio.com (see this link for video). The grio is smart enough not to try to guess how many people are actually fighting. These types of fights are chaotic, and one can not always tell who is fighting, who is running away from a fight and who is running toward a fight. This video does capture a number of people throwing blows, but most spectators are moving toward, and away from the action. What the video really shows is the chaos created by spectator brawls. For local coverage, see Seven Students Disciplined In City College Basketball Brawl by Erica Green, The Baltimore Sun, February 9, 2011.
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Nashville, TN - February 1, 2011 - 2 Nashville Schools Penalized After Fight At Game, WKRN-TV 2, Nashivlle, TN. Three things to note in this fight: (1) A coach suffered a broken nose in this bench clearing fight at a freshman girls' game; (2) One of the schools was already on restrictive probation by the State Office for a previous fight and was banned from the playoffs under the terms of that probation. This is a strong penalty, but probation is not a strong incentive at the freshman level and playoff bans are only effective if a school is good enough for the playoffs to have meaning. Sometimes even a strong penalty doesn't have a deterrent effect; (3) The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association fined the two schools over $1,000 apiece. That could severely deter poorer public schools, and have a moderate deterrent impact on richer schools. It will be interesting to see if this happens again at these two schools.
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New York, NY - February 1, 2011 - Unsafe Schools, Cold Weather, a Lack of Transportation, and Bad Attitudes: Toxic Brew in New York Creates Ugly Scene Before High School Basketball Game. The media got a great story out of this one. Boys and Girls High School showed up at Lincoln High prior to a basketball game. The team was denied entry to the school, and forced to wait an hour in the cold (and the temperature was 30 degrees on February 1, 2011). Jeff Wiggins, an assistant coach, attempted to gain entry to the school lobby, was denied, got in a scuffle with a school security guard, and was ultimately handcuffed and issued a summons by the police. The New York Department of Education says it will investigate. We already know what happened, though. You have an inner city New York school that really doesn't want people running through its building unless they belong there. The principal tells a security guard not to let any kids in who don't go to Lincoln. The guard takes this literally. Unfortunately, a basketball team comes to a game extremely early (we know they were extremely early if they waited outdoors for an hour, had time to have a scuffle with the guard, and still had time to warm up and play), and the guard simply lacked the common sense to realize that a team should be brought in, and put in a controlled area - or a locker room. The Lincoln principal should have been notified, and the Lincoln principal could have called her counterpart from Boys and Girls High School or her athletic director to develop some procedure for what to do when visiting teams come really early. The Boys and Girls High principal may have even met with her team the next day and told them to leave a little later so they don't get to a site too early - but that's a gamble when you're relying on public transportation. Anyway, everybody here is tainted a little bit but it sure makes for great reading. See Report: Prep Coach Handcuffed After Fight, Fox Sports New York, February 2, 2011 (republishing the New York Post's article). The New York Post article has the best headline - as usual. See B'klyn Scuffle Coach Cuffed by Zach Braziller, New York Post, February 2, 2011. The New York Daily News offers a more subdued take on the story (of course nobody is as dramatic as the Post). The Daily News doesn't even lead with the scuffle. The story appears under the regular sports banner as Lincoln Beats Boys & Girls, 61-56, as Kangaroos' Mike Taylor Sits Out Due To Academic Suspension by Mark Lelinwalla, New York Daily News, February 1, 2011.
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Lake County, CA - January 28, 2011 - Lifetime Ban For Middletown High School Basketball Player by Phil Barber, Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, February 11, 2011. Middletown HS Basketball player, Brandon Thomas, receives lifetime ban after he shoves a basketball referee. This incident comes slightly over a month after a very high profile attack on an official in Florida, and reminds us of the dangers that our sports officials face.
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East Charlotte, NC – January 28, 2011 - Melee Breaks Out When Dad Attacks Police Officer At High School Basketball Game. See Brawl Ignites During High School Basketball Game in Charlotte, NBC 17, Charlotte, NC, January 29, 2011; Father Arrested After Fight At East Meck-Butler Game, Charlotte Observer.com, January 29, 2011; CMS Reviewing Security After Fight At Basketball Game. WCNC.com News 36, Charlotte, NC, January 31, 2011. This is a case of good security going bad. The security plan for the East Mecklenburg vs. Butler High School basketball game had fans from the two teams seated on separate sides of the gym: a very wise security measure. One girl, a player on the girls’ basketball team, asked for permission to visit someone on the other side. The permission was granted. When a police officer determined that the girl had sufficient time to visit, he asked her to return to her sideline. The girl objected – and allegedly did not do so in a civil manner. The girl’s father stood up for his daughter … by attacking the police officer. This is the story of many modern fights. People don’t necessarily have bad intentions. They simply lack the capacity to express an objection in a civil manner, making it more likely that their objection will be expressed in an inappropriate, dangerous, or stupid manner. Once discipline breaks down, we see the same breakdowns in others. Soon, a melee breaks out and a lot of the people could never tell you why such petty little disputes, led to such dangerous and outrageous results. At the end of the day, we had mass chaos because a girl couldn't handle being told to go back to her seat.
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Louisville, KY - January 26, 2011 - Coach Abuses Social Media - School Gets Fined. See Tweets About Ref Prompt KHSSA To Punish Jeffersontown Coach Morrow by Jason Frakes, Louisville Courier-Journal, January 26, 2011.
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Chicago, IL - January 18, 2011 - Fans Charge Court; Benches Empty and Chicago Public School Game is Postponed. The odd thing about this game is that no technical fouls were called in an incident where two players pushed each other, and the benches cleared. One coach complained about it, but it's clear that the NFHS rule that requires the ejection of players leaving the bench during a fight is not only not being enforced, it wasn't expected to be enforced. As to the spectators charging the court, we've seen this so often that it's almost not news - even though it's ugly, dangerous, and contributes to a poor sports culture. See Morgan Park - Bogan Game Suspended After Melee by Bob Narang, Chicago Tribune, January 18, 2011.
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Tecumseh, OK - January 14, 2011 - Bench Clearing Brawl In Oklahoma as a team called the "Savages" lives up to its name. See Fight Breaks out During High School Basketball Game In Tecumseh, Oklahoma City News 9, January 14, 2011.
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New Carlisle, IN - January 14, 2011 - What Were They Thinking? Richard and Carla Gruse, an Indiana couple, attended a high school basketball game, got upset with the referee's calls, got vocal, and then ignored a police officer who asked them to calm down. Ignoring the officer wasn't enough for the Gruses, though. Oh, no. They compounded their problems by allegedly pushing the police officer. They're in deep trouble ... you think! See 2 Charged In Scuffle At High School Game, Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette, January 19, 2011.
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Monroe, MI - January 10, 2011 - Wrestling Hazing Scandal Hits Monroe County, Michigan High School: Upperclassmen urinate on, sexually assault underclassmen. See Allegations of Hazing At A Monroe County High School Have Parents Upset and School Officials Investigating, WXYZ, Monroe, MI, January 10, 2011; Jefferson Wrestlers Under Scrutiny For Alleged Hazing, Monroe County News, January 10, 2011. The negative side of the wrestling culture has been exposed this year. It has not been pretty. We've seen the Fresno "butt-drag" case where a wrestler jammed his finger up an underclassman's anus during a practice match. We've seen this act, involving urination. I hate to play armchair psychologist, but it is very possible that a violent sport that has people crossing the normal physical boundaries of contact may lead to forms of hazing that do the same. It is fashionable for us to say that we abhor hazing. However, we don't hear people complaining about initiation rituals such as having the freshman carry the ball bag. We all laugh at the "thank you sir, may I have another" line in Animal House. We tend to view some hazing as good clean fun, and even a needed dose of humility. We only read negative news articles about hazing when the hazer crosses some line and either enters the realm of sexual abuse or puts someone at danger. In short, the message that we send is not that hazing is bad, but that some hazers go too far. This leads the hazer to confront the dilemma of having to find hazing techniques that are creative enough to force the hazee to feel the full brunt of being initiated while not crossing a line. It is inevitable that the line will be crossed. The problem for anti-hazing people is the difficulty in quantifying how much hazing occurs and how often that hazing crosses a line. It's the same problem that I have on the bad-acts listings on this site. I can't quantify the bad acts, but I can say that if I wanted to, I could find a bad sports act every day. Hazing's no different. Insidehazing.com can find a hazing act every day. You can visit their site to see an almost daily listing of a hazing act. Just click right here, and get ready to be overwhelmed with hazing gone astray.
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Middletown, CT - January 5, 2011 - Post-Game Handshake Breaks Down At Connecticut High School Game. See Fight at High School Basketball Game by Jim Bransfield, Middletown Press, January 5, 2011.
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Kochville Township, MI - January 5, 2011 - Spectator Brawl Mars Saginaw, MI. rivalry game. This one was ugly ... as things tend to be when 3,500 fans are present and a brawl breaks out. See 6 Detained After Fight at Local Basketball Game, WNEM TV, Saginaw, MI, January 5, 2011.
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