State athletic association cancels seasons after on-court brawl

It's a good question. I wouldn't cancel their seasons. (That said, I can't imagine either coach should coach another game at those schools, or any Indiana high schools, at least for a while. That complicates things somewhat.)

I'd probably hand out some staggered two- or three-game suspensions to the players on each team, and also probably host both squads for a mediated clear-the-air peace summit in Indianapolis.

 

No, this has to be pretty much the one non-negotiable rule in high school sports.

 

Should both coaches get at least a one-year ban?

From what I understand, this had been building through the week on social media and in the JV game, as well.

 

The coach ban sounds good at first glance, but I don't know enough about their history. If they've been pretty good until now, it wouldn't bother me if their penalty just ran the same as the whole team's.

But as others have noted, the fans running onto the court created a whole new level of chaos and danger. Very little gray area on this one IMO.

 

One thing that I think is missing in the IHSAA's decision - and hopefully both schools will recognize - is that they shouldn't play each other for awhile after this, either.

Looking back on it 20 years later, I don't know if it was the athletic directors' wisdom or an IHSAA mandate, but my high school didn't play Pike, which was the closest nearby school, in any sport for about three years after a post-game fight following a girls basketball game. The instigator of the fight, coincidentally, was a star on Pike's boys team. He was the only one really punished - got kicked off the team - but he just transferred to Ben Davis, led them to a state title and then ended up being a key figure in the University of Minnesota scandal a couple years later. Useless trivia that this video has me reminiscing on.

 

It's OK. Merrillville's (the team Ben Davis beat) point guard transferred in before that season from the next district over. As luck would have it, they just needed a point guard.

 

At least three of them looked like moms rushing out of the stands to pull their babies out of the scrum.

 

And some of them looked like coaches trying to pull kids out of it. Even the other people who looked like teen-agers seemed to be keeping their friends on the team from fighting. I just don't see any fans doing anything but trying to make peace. That said, there's a lot going on in the frame.

 

Good to see the refs just get out of the way. Nice game control.

 

I am not going to Zapruder the video, but it seems to be the only ones out of control were the kids. You almost needed some big beefy adults to break it up.

And frankly, I don't have a problem with a ref stepping back. They don't get paid enough to put themselves in harms way of strong 17 year-olds throwing haymakers.

 

That was a hell of a cheap shot that started the entire thing.

Hard to determine how bad that got after 5-7 seconds of video, but those teams were not controllable by school staff, you can't let them play anymore.

 

It's all Mike Pence's fault