The Indiana High School Athletic Association dropped the curtain on the 2014-15 boys basketball seasons for Hammond High and Griffith after they got into a stands-clearing fight Saturday night. Commissioner Bobby Cox declared their basketball seasons “over”, including their participation in the state tournament next month. People who were in the Griffith gym that night say it started with a lot of trash-talking during the junior varsity game, then carried over to the varsity warm-up. Less than three minutes into the game, a Griffith player had a break-away opportunity and looked like he was lining up his steps to dunk the ball when a Hammond player, with no illusion of effort to play the ball, rammed his opponent into the padded wall at the end of the court. The teammates of the injured player rushed to his aid first, then turned their attention to the young man who injured him. And then the pot that had been bubbling boiled over. Punches were thrown. The benches emptied. Fans made their way onto the court. And because it’s 2015, the video of the incident and all that would follow took only a couple of hours to make it to YouTube. It was scary ... all of it. By my count, about 50 people came out of the stands. Some of them climbed over the railing of the upper deck to the lower level to get down to the fracas. These are alleged adults. They are supposed to be the role models and mentors. They are supposed to know better and act better. Uh ... yah. Police tried to break it up, but people refused to listen. They would push away from the peacemakers and find a new partner to mix it up with. Police determined that it was unsafe and unwise to continue the game and they sent everyone home (and can you imagine what THAT was like when people went into the parking lot?). Cox announced Tuesday the most severe penalties in my memory. Both schools' boys basketball seasons were cancelled from here on out – no more regular season, no postseason tournament. The two schools will also have to pay $500 for each opponent they were scheduled to play on the road for the remainder of the season, and their coaches and players will be required to attend classes on sportsmanship. Next year the two schools will be on probation. Both schools released statements saying that they accept the penalties and will work toward resolving the issues at-hand. Cox came down hard on this situation, and he needed to. The punishments send a strong message across the landscape of the Hoosier State: "Sportsmanship matters". For the last few years the IHSAA has been running public service announcements promoting how high sportsmanship ranks in the high school athletics experience. This incident was well below the grade. So Griffith and Hammond will sit the rest of this one out. You may be reading this and saying “who cares, that's in inner cities and it doesn't happen here.” The truth is, it HAS happened here. Anyone need me to bring up the Warsaw-Valley basketbrawl a little over 20 years ago? Seems to me some fans were involved in that one, too. So what is different now? What used to be acceptable as “stuff just happens” is no longer acceptable. Good! Parents, remind your kids when they are in youth sports that the point of sports, at all levels, is for everyone to have fun. Winning is fun, playing the game right is fun, learning how to be a good teammate is fun. Being a bad sport is never fun. These penalties are harsh, but consider this: what if one of those fans at Griffith Saturday would have had a gun?
