List of Recent Bad Acts Links To Organizations That List Bad Acts Special Cases
Chicago, IL - January 11, 2012 - Coach Allegedly Instigates Fight Outside Gym After Game. Inner City Sports is tough enough without a basketball coach triggering a post-game fight outside of a gym. David Prater, Jr., coach of Chicago's Ace Technical Charter High School, was charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct. See Chicago High School Basketball Coach Charged With Instigating Fight, Chicago Tribune, January 12, 2012.
-----------------
Mashpee, MA - January 10, 2012 - Helpers Make Things Worse In Mashpee, MA. When two players started fighting in a Mashpee, MA JV boys' basketball game, other players, coaches, and parents all decided that they just had to run in and help. This turned a normal fight into a scrum. Apparently, something happened in the scrum and Mashpee police are reportedly investigating and trying to get video. The moral of all this. If you're a spectator, stay in the stands. You may think you're helping, but you're just making things worse. If you're a player, don't join the fight. You may think you're helping, but you're just making things worse. In other words, don't turn a two person fight into a mob scene. See Mashee Police Probe Basketball Game Fight, Cape Cod Times, January 13, 2012; and Police Further Investigating Basketball Brawl, WHDH-TV report on MSNBC, January 13, 2012.
--------------------------------------
Charleston, SC - January 9, 2012 - High School Hoops Fans Attack Tebowers. South Carolina's West Ashley High School's spectators sent a loud and violent message to their rivals from Wando High after Wando's 20 point basketball win in January: No Tebowing Allowed! Reportedly, the West Ashley fans felt that the mass Tebowing (a celebratory prayer gesture popularized by Denver Broncos' quarterback Tim Tebow) by the Wando fans was more of a taunt than a religious gesture so some of the West Ashley spectators jumped their Tebowing rivals. Two Wando fans were severely injured. Now, in truth, Tebowing may have had nothing to do with all of this. The Tebowing gesture consists of nothing more than kneeling in a brief prayer like pose, and such a gesture wouldn't raise the ire of any rational set of human beings. It may just be that the West Ashley fans simply were predisposed to beat up on the Wando fans. It was a rivalry game after all. I note that the Charleston Post and Courier reports that West Ashley fans have beaten up Wando fans before. The Post and Courier also notes that despite their prayerful pose, the Wando fans can give back as good as they got. Maybe this is a rivalry game that either needs a whole lot more crowd control or no crowd at all - just play the game in front of an empty house. For details, see 2 Wando Students Beaten At Game by Andrew Knapp, Charleston Post and Courier, January 14, 2012.
---------------------
Prince George's County, MD - January 6, 2012 - Fans Get Violent At Maryland's Friendly H.S. Maryland's Gazette.Net reports that an unruly spectator got into an altercation with a police officer who was removing him from a gym. The spectator reportedly, "assaulted the officer, causing the officer to fall down the bleachers." This led other officers to intervene. It also led to a crowd of students gathering around. The Gazette reports that some of the students were angry, and refused to disperse. This resulted in pepper spray being deployed and a number of students being arrested. See Lessons-Learned Meeting Tonight At Friendly High Hopes To Move Past Fight That Prompted Arrests, Pepper Spray by Mimi Liu, The Maryland Gazette.net, January 10, 2012.
----------------------------------
New, York, NY - January 5, 2012. Rivals Feud Over Appropriate Way To Honor Coach. Tragedies often bring folks together. Here, it drove two schools apart. After their coach's death, New York’s Nazareth High School’s girls’ basketball team decided that the best way to honor him was to play their regularly scheduled game on Thursday, January 5, 2012. Their opponents from Bishop Ford High decided that playing was disrespectful, and then gave Nazareth a lecture on the appropriate way to honor the deceased coach. According to New York’s Fox TV, Bishop Ford’s president told Nazareth, "The gentleman isn't even buried yet. The day that we put more importance on any sort of a game before life and death is a day that we should stop being educators." Needless to say, the folks from Nazareth weren’t too keen on being lectured on how to honor their own coach. Oh the moral rectiude. Usually, a death brings people together. This one has driven them apart. I must say that there are times when the people who didn’t suffer the loss of their coach need to keep their opinions to themselves. While one may have firm opinions about propriety, it’s just flat out bad form to tell other people how to grieve. If this is how these schools get along off the court, I’d hate to see them on it. See Coach's Death Sparks Fight Between Schools, Fox-TV, New, York, January 5, 2012; and Nazareth, Bishop Ford Disagree When To Play After Coach's Death by Joseph Staszewski, New York Post, January 5, 2012. FOLLOW UP - THINGS GET WORSE AS SELF RIGHTEOUS SCHOOLS KEEP TELLING NAZARETH HOW TO GRIEVE. As of Jan. 6, 2012, Christ the King, another Catholic school, has refused to play Nazareth. Nazareth wants catharsis. Their opponents prefer self righteousness. Now, Coach Apache Paschall's family has stated that they're not pleased. You see, they, too, want Nazareth to play to honor the late coach and for the needed emotional release. See Late Coach's Family Angry; Teams Refuse To Play Nazareth by Marc Raimondi and Joseph Staszewski, New York Post, January 6, 2012. Coach Paschall's mom puts it best. The Post quotes her as saying, "We spoke to everyone [the players] at the hospital ... They said they wanted to play. If anyone should be do any type of canceling, it should be coming from us. [The game] would have been a tribute to Apache.” The self righteous, over officious schools that refused to play this game have caused more pain and grief for the family and players than they'll ever realize. Can you be a poor sport if no game is played? Yes. Bishop Ford and Christ The King have proven so.
-------------------------------------
LINKS TO ORGANIZATIONS THAT LIST BAD ACTS
Fans Behaving Badly - The Florida Today Little League Bad Act Site.
National Association of Sports Officials
Half Moon Bay High School, CA - Half Moon Bay High School Fans Have A Tradition of Streaking During High School Football Games and Allegedly Have Used Racial or Homophobic Epithets Against Visiting Teams On More Than One Occasion. See Racial Slurs Spark Fury by Heather Murtagh, San Mateo Daily Journal, Nov. 9, 2007; and Sequoia Threatens Penalty In Football Melee by Jason Goldman-Hall, San Francisco Examiner, Nov. 9, 2007, and No Proof About Who Taunted Sequoia High Players, Fans by Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 9, 2007 page B8. Streaking, Racial and Homophobic Slurs, and Overall Poor Sportsmanship At Half Moon Bay High School Football Games Sparks Civil Grand Jury Investigation. See Grand Jury Questions HMB High School Plans, San Mateo Daily Journal, July 15, 2008. See San Mateo County Grand Jury Report of 2008 on Addressing Unacceptable Behavior At Half Moon Bay High School Sporting Events..
Camden High School, New Jersey - Camden High School Has Been Removed From the New Jersey State Tournament Three Times In The Past Thirty Years For Unsportsmanlike Incidents, Lack of Crowd Control, and Other Problems. For A Description of These Problems See Athletes Must Learn Violence Is Not Okay, New Jersey Courier-Post, March 11, 2006.
ONGOING PROBLEMS AT RICH SOUTH H.S. IN ILLINOIS: Rich South High School has been beset by sportsmanship problems over the last few years. They have had difficulty solving them, and not all their attempts to do so have been well received.
Dec. 26, 2009 - Big Fight at Rich South After Basketball Game. One Girl, Miracle Jackson, says she had nothing to do with the fight and is the victim of police brutality. Interestingly, that's how the Chicago's NBC TV covered this. That's right, the headline isn't, "Riot at Game." Oh no! The headline is Richton Park Teen Girls Allege Police Brutality by BJ Lutz and Natalie Martinez, NBC Chicago, December 29, 2009.
March 2005: Racial Overtones as white schools want to leave Rich South's Athletic Conference.