Fights in hockey are as much a part of that sport as ice. Boxing and wrestling are sanctioned fights.
Bands play fight songs.
Coaches are proud when their teams fight hard.
Except when things get out of control, and it’s really a fight.
As happened Wednesday night in the moments after the Bossier Bearkats ended the Morgan City Tigers’ season in the second round of the LHSAA soccer playoffs at Memorial Stadium.
Sports are intense for the competitors. For the fans. For the officials. Everything peaks in the playoffs, when loser stays home.
Not that emotions don’t boil most of the time. The challenge is to not boil over.
It’s one thing to play as hard as you can, against a team playing full tilt. Trash talking aside, there is competitive respect in most cases – although rivalry games in particular tend to be exceptions at any level.
In football last fall, when crosstown rivals Airline and Parkway faced off, at the end of a fierce battle, Panthers coaches shook hands with their counterparts and Vikings players in the standard midfield handshake line. But the Parkway staff directed their players to go to the north end zone to celebrate the exciting victory, the Panthers’ first in four years in the series, with the band, spirit groups and their fellow students.
At field level, it seemed a prudent choice, considering the intensity over four quarters, following a week of social media barbs that go with the territory. The Panthers, an excellent and yet undoubtedly rugged team, had flashed high emotions in a few previous postgames.
The move drew lots of public criticism and apparently a stern reaction from the school board office. But there was no fight.
There was one Wednesday night, a fracas that game officials said they did not anticipate although the stakes were high. Nothing they saw or sensed seemed to signal trouble.
But today, along with filing an appeal of a mandatory suspension required due to those officials issuing a red card (ejection) to one of his players, first-year Bossier head coach Gerardo Martinez will have to sort out other potential ramifications.
Perhaps the LHSAA’s disciplinary action will stop at one player – the Bearkat assigned the red card, said Martinez, did not throw a punch and was mistaken by game officials for another; video of the incident should rectify that – but it might not. Other players might get sanctioned; worst case, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the LHSAA might just disqualify Bossier from advancing to the quarterfinals. Unlikely considering the relatively brief nature of this incident compared to other more severe brawls in various postseason games, but until the ruling is made, that’s not off the table.
Neither is the potential of legal charges being filed against the Morgan City player, Micah Wilkerson, whose punch knocked out Bossier junior Leonardo Villarreal – fortunately for only a short while. There could be counter charges filed from the Morgan City side.
If that happens, could it bench the accused Bearkat for the next game, at least? I don’t have a Bossier High or Bossier Parish Schools policy manual handy but it’s not uncommon that an automatic suspension follows charges filed against a student-athlete, regardless of the merit of the allegation.
All this stemming from 20-30 seconds of mayhem after the end of a really good soccer playoff game.
In another setting, what happened might have been road rage, or another kind of altercation that we see play out over and over, with tragic outcomes reported on the nightly local newscasts.
This is not that, if only because Leonardo Villarreal seemed fine, said his coach and others, shortly afterwards.
But it is one of those “teachable moments,” and these are still students. Let’s see how the adults sort this out. There were mistakes made in the moment by some youngsters on both sides.
There need to be consequences. Not necessarily suspensions – although LSHAA rules are clear, so there will be suspensions – and hopefully no action involving the legal system.
Turn something bad into something good. Each team – not just the involved players — should be required to do a bunch of community service activity.
Those who were scrapping should get a tougher ticket – say additional campus trash pickup for a couple weeks, or longer. The two schools should collaborate on the discipline so it’s evenly applied – and at least some of it shows up on the schools’ social media.
Out of conflict, cooperation – ultimately, a positive outcome, or at least, some redemption.
NOTE — In the initial version published Thursday morning, a torn jersey resulted in Morgan City’s goalkeeper being misidentified. That has been corrected.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com
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