Fight - NFHS
 

There was a fight in a HS game in Michigan yesterday. I've seen a poor video of it but it doesn't show the entire event or the team benches.


Player A1 fouls B1 hard. A2 then comes in and shoves B1. B1 shoves back. Multiple players then all run in and begin shoving each other.

Players then leave the bench area to become involved and it spills from the stands onto the court as well.

Officials end the game.

From what I've seen, all 5 players on the floor for each team became involved in the altercation. It appears that each player left the bench area to join in as well.

What penalties should the officials have accessed in this situation? (They did end up ending the game after this broke out and the local PD. township, county and state police all ended up showing up to restore order.).

My thinking is that each of the players who left the bench should be assessed a flagrant foul and ejected. The players who were on the floor should be assessed a flagrant foul and ejected. The game should be ruled as a double forfeit as neither team appears to have had any eligible players left for the game.

This is why we should pregame that when a fight occurs, the two nearest officials should try and get to the benches before they empty onto the floor. The number one thing that escalates fights is players coming on the floor and HS assistant coaches are NOT smart enough to control their players when an on-court altercation occurs.

From the video I saw I don't think anyone was going to be stopping these boys from running onto the floor. Two of the officials were in the general area of where the initial incident occurred and you can see the third waving to his partners when everything breaks loose to get to the middle of the court near him. I'm sure that was done so the officials could see who was doing what. Like I said I don't see the officials stopping this from happening. At that point it is protect your backside and observe and report.

Everyone other than the head coach that leaves the bench gets a flagrant T. Whichever team had fewer bench personnel leave the bench gets two free throws (assuming no one that left participated in the fight). Both head coaches get an indirect T and are seatbelted.

Whether the game is a double forfeit isn’t up to the officials. But if it’s as bad as you indicated, I’m likely suspending the game and letting the state decide what to do.

And the NCAA rule regarding leaving the bench and not participating is better than the NFHS rule (ejected, but no foul penalties assessed).

Just because you pregame something doesn’t mean it will work out that way when s*it hits the fan.

Pregame Worthy ...
 

Unless it's a big rivalry game known to be problematic from past games, I'm not sure that fighting is always pregame worthy.

It's definitely worthy of a yearly, or every other yearly, discussion at regular meetings, but to be pregamed every single game? I don't think so.

My pregame deals with stuff that happens regularly in most games, that may be handled slightly differently by individual officials, extending primary coverage areas, boundary responsibilities, double whistles, help on out of bounds calls, disqualified players, seatbelted coaches, and rotations. Early season pregames may include rule changes and mechanics changes.

Most officials really don't want a pregame that goes much longer than that, grizzled veterans will often have an entire pregame that only consists of, "Good eye contact. Don't f**k up".

Knock on wood, I've never had a fight in almost forty years. They're too rare to pregame every single game. I don't think I've ever had a referee even mention a fight in their pregame (I have heard halftime discussions regarding such).

Yes, we have to know how to handle fights when they happen, I can have my first ever fight Friday night (girls junior varsity game), but I don't believe (short of an expected problem) that fights should be pregamed every single game.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cart...ron902_low.jpg

I haven't pregamed it at all this year Billy. I only do it before games where I think stuff might get sideways, and during games when stuff gets squirrelly and I bring the crew together and we talk about it.

That said, you never know when a fight is gonna strike.

Stuff Gets Squirrelly ...
 

Agree.

High-tech resources on the topic, FWIW.
Consequences of Fighting - NFHS - PDF of Ppt