Clearing some things up about fights

By Nick Stevens

Posted: May 15, 2008

There have been discussions over the last few days about the incident that occurred at Hunt High School last weekend. A lot of it has been centered around: "Who should have stopped it?" and "Why weren't the officials doing their job?"

Well, lets put that to rest right now.

No body should have had to stop the fight because it should have never happened. The student-athletes have to be held accountable for starting the fight. They are old enough to realize that fighting with one another will not get either team anywhere.

Once the fight broke out, the officials did their jobs. They took a step back, watched who was involved, and ejected them. The officials filled out their ejection reports after the game, and then sent them to the N.C. High School Athletic Association office in Chapel Hill - just like they're supposed to do.

The NCHSAA rules do not require officials to break up fights, in fact, they prohibit them from doing so.

Instead, school officials and law enforcement officers are supposed to work together to break up fights. Whether or not that is what happened at Hunt, no one seems to know.

The Coach

Randy Raper, the head football coach at Hunt, was in the stands watching the game. His daughter played in the game, and she was also the Hunt player involved in the fight.

Raper left the stands and went onto the field of play to break up the fight when it happened. As a result, the Gray's Creek player fell to the ground.

Yes, Raper is the head football coach, but no, he was not acting as a coach when the fight took place - he was acting as a spectator. He has been punished as such.

The NCHSAA Handbook clearly lays out consequences for spectators who break rules. Among those consequences is the option for the NCHSAA to ban spectators from NCHSAA sanctioned events for up to one year. Raper was banned for the remainder of the springs sports season.

The initial punishment was levied on Raper by the school. The NCHSAA affirmed the punishment, and Que Tucker told WRAL that more penalties could be handed down by the Association in the future. The penalties will not impact his football coaching.

In Conclusion...

Tucker gave some very good advice for people who are watching their kids play sports: "Just stay out of it."

Think what could have happened if there were some hot headed parents on the Gray's Creek side. They could have jumped the fence, started a fight with Raper, then other parents come out, the school officials get involved, and there's a full-blown brawl taking place. That is why the NCHSAA has these rules in place.

Spectators should NEVER intervene in a fight that is taking place on the field of play.

5 Comments

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Have any of you heard of a "hatchet man?" It has been common throughout the ages of team sports for coaches to look for and select a less than skilled player with attitude to do the "dirty work" such as performing harassing and illegal acts against the top player(s) of the other team. Many top teams have used these players to great effect. Raper very well may have been that player for this school. The only danger of being a really good hatchet player is you may get in a fight and/or get tossed from a contest. Of course, your job is to make sure that you have secured adequate offense to get the other team's player(s) disqualified as well. What a good trade.

grimacesmith
May 23, 2008 3:30 p.m.

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"Are we talking a few seconds here, one minute, what? How long did this thing go on? And I stand by my original post that the only reason he should have gone out the field was to drag her rear to the house. No excuse for fighting."

If it went on long enough for that guy to come out of the stands and make his way onto the field, then yeah, it sounds like they were standing around picking their nose. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't, but that stands to reason. As for the fighting, there are so many variables...... if's, and's and but's..... None of my children was ever invloved in a fight to my knowledge. But I had told all three of them to avoid fights at all costs, UNLESS someone hit them first. And if that happened, they had my permission and my blessing if they beat the dog dookie out of them.

mrkagain
May 19, 2008 5:38 p.m.

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Can someone enlighten me a little? Many of the posts seem to indicate the refs stood by like they were at a hockey fight and a game broke out. Are we talking a few seconds here, one minute, what? How long did this thing go on? And I stand by my original post that the only reason he should have gone out the field was to drag her rear to the house. No excuse for fighting.

Garnerwolf1
May 19, 2008 3:00 p.m.

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I agree with mrkagain. It is 100% pure instinct to run to your child. I think I would have stopped at the sidelines as well and asked for someone to do something. You can not stand and watch your child get beat up-whether it is their fault or not. It is only right to try and stop the fight. If that was my daughter, and she got seriously injured, and I did nothing about it because the rules say a parent can't intervene then I would have had to live with that guilt forever.

cheddarhead
May 18, 2008 5:49 p.m.

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You're right of course. All my kids are out of school now, and thankfully they never had any trouble like this. But I'll have to say, if it had been one of mine and I thought they were taking a whuppin, I would have made it at least to the sidelines and raised holy heck. That's instinct, and reason has little to do with it. I could deal with my kid being at fault in the first place, and instructed them to take the blame, but I don't know that I could have accepted them being stomped. It's a difficult thing to ponder......

mrkagain
May 15, 2008 11:22 p.m.

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