The same afternoon that I watched footage on ESPN about Jason McElwain, the autistic high school basketball player who finally got into a game for Greece Althena High School in Rochester NY (the story can be found here), I saw footage on the local newscast which showed a parent interjecting himself into a preps wrestling match, literally.
The link to any video footage has been forgotten, but the images are inexcuseable. The parent lept from the stands, ran onto the mat, and pulled & threw the opposing school's wrestler off his son, claiming his son had suffered a shoulder injury. Taking a few steps towards the cameraperson, it also appeared the parent was launching a verbal tirade and threats to do that person in as well.
Strangely enough, a fight between the two prep competitors did not break out. The referee was in the middle but made no move to restrain the parent. Even more odd was the fact that the opponent's mother didn't harbor any hard feelings towards this case of obvious assault on the mat.
Whether they already worked out their problems afterward is unknown, and obviously not the juice of the story. Without making it sound sensationalistic, this footage & story is just another case about how sports are getting out of control sometimes.
From a very positive feeling that McElwain's story generated (he also had a visit from the President), a haphazard parent mutes all that positive thinking. I am sure the referee of the match would have stopped it if it became obvious an injury was lurking. It's a parent's right to be concerned about their own, but manhandling a kid half their size is not the way to get the message across.
My point? In these uncertain times, we have to have eyes in the back of our head, for we never know what might happen, especially at a sporting event, where emotions peak multiple times per game. The classic brawl between the NBA's Indiana and Detroit teams, where players ran into the stands and sucker-punched fans, showed there was lax security at those events. Players must be restrained from the fans, and vice-versa.
The preps episode shows a case of "necessary shame" of the times, where nothing can be done safely, it seems, except beyond locked doors in the house. Security protection at prep sporting events may need to be thought of, a requirement rippled down from the NBA incidents. Years ago, the local prep basketball rivalries grew to such a pitch that entire blocks of the season had to be cancelled. Evidentally, no league at any level is safe or exempt from crazy things happening.
Even when I attended the PBA event in Taylor back in October, I was amazed at how accessible the bowlers were, and how easy it would be for something bad to take place. Yet, due to the easy access, I had the fear that some wayward fan would try something unthinkable.
Whether it's the influence of booze, the overly passionate way they feel about the competition, or just due to the home environment itself, parents need to learn that there's a right way & wrong way to settle disputes, and react to situations they may not have control over.
The tone of the prep story suggested to me that the boys finished the match in spite of the parent. Now who's supposed to be teaching whom here, according to the pecking order?
