Referee Hurt In Fight at Big Rapids (MI) HS
 

This game took place March 5, 2015:

BIG RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A referee was hurt Thursday during a fight at Big Rapids High School basketball game against Traverse City West.

Big Rapids Public Schools Superintendent Tim Haist says everything happened towards the end of the game Thursday night when two players, one from each team, got into a fight.

Then other teammates on both teams joined in and that’s when things got out of hand and at least one person, a referee, got hurt.

The daughter of the injured referee, who she identified as 57-year-old Jimmy Smith, tells 24 Hour News 8 he was trying to pull a Big Rapids player off of a Traverse City West player when other players on the Big Rapids team got off the bench and threw him to the ground.

Smith was able to get up and help control the crowd along with coaches and other parents. Smith’s daughter says he took himself to the hospital Friday with a hurt neck and knee.

Haist calls the incident unfortunate, saying they have not had to deal with it before. He said the students involved will be held accountable but said at this point he couldn’t say how.

The district, the Michigan High School Athletic Association and Mecosta County Sheriff’s Department are all investigating the incident.

Do not get involved in the melee.

This. Stand back...take numbers. Blow your whistle once or twice to try to get the knuckleheads to stop. The LAST thing I'm doing is jumping in the middle to try to break it up...out of fear of injury to myself OR liability for putting my hands on a player to restrain him/her.

I agree BNR. I do not care how big and bad you feel, let them fight and get out of the way. If they fight that is on them and just penalize all the parties involved after it is all over.

Peace

I echo the last three comments. No way I'm pulling a player off of anyone. By the time they get tangled up, I'm just watching and blowing my whistle.

Back off
 

Agree with all the above. Was told at camp last year to try to separate the players initially if you can get there quick enough but once the first punch is thrown, back off and observe.

If I can get between them, I'll try. If they're already too close for me to get in the middle, I'm not going to separate anything.

Something I learned in mortuary training for the military.
"Never try to separate commingled remains."

I still think that players involved in a fight during an athletic event need to be arrested and charged with assault...if the court/field is an extension of the classroom, let's stop letting them get away with this garbage.

I agree. If a juvenile record is on the table, I just about guarantee you'd see an immediate virtual stop to fighting in the games.

Careful what you wish for...
 

Maybe...but guess who would be dragged in to court to testify about participants, retaliation, who started it, who threw the first punch..."What was your vantage point at the moment of impact?", "The other official on court at the time saw it differently". Lots of land mines when you start talking minors and criminal records.

And lots of game films available to show to the court, or use before it ever makes it to a court room.

I do not think the courts want to get that deep involved in a sporting event. And it would take a lot of time over multiple events and stories to sort out. I get it if the action is ultra violent and there are other things other than a altercation that is on the court or field. But if it is just a fist fight and involving the participants directly in that game (no fans), I do not think that is a great thing to have as a policy. Courts do not want to deal with minor conflicts if possible, I doubt they want to bring up anything in court over an incident with many witnesses and versions of the same story. And with the video that we see and so much is hard to decipher, I doubt a District Attorney is going to want to take away time for a fight that did not occur in a bar or with alcohol and spend it on a situation like this where more time will be spent than most cases.

Peace

I feel that every home team should be required to film their games. The game in question for the OP had no game films.

Schools in South Carolina don't have to film, but if you have a situation like this and don't have any film to show the SCHSL office, the officials' report is the only thing that will be used to determine what action will be taken. In a "he said/she said" scenario, the SCHSL will almost invariably be siding with the officials.