Ohio H.S Playoff Game Ends in Brawl

((ht: dispatch.com))

Uh, this is never good.

The ending to Friday night's Steubenville vs. Beechcroft playoff football game in Zanesville, Ohio did not end well.

Stubenville had just pulled the upset, beating top ranked Beechcroft 29-21 in the regional finals when both teams ran out onto the field for the traditional "post-game handshake".

Only that handshake erupted into a end-to-end brawl between the two teams that required police to step in and help separate the teams.

Supposedly, the incident began on one of the last plays of the game when Big Red QB Dmitiri Collaros took a knee and was plowed into by Beechcroft's Takeyvon Simmons. That happened with just over a minute to go and after some pushing and shoving, both teams finished the last play.

It was the handshake that reset the hostilities.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, nobody was hurt nor arrested. The coaches for both teams declined to talk about the incident.

It's still too early to determine what the Ohio High School Athletic Association will do after the incident.

Here's your video from the Dispatch, who covered the game:

OSG High: Ohio HS FB Game Called Because Of Fight

((HT: Fox 8/WEWS-TV))

A high school football game between Garfield Heights and Collinwood (OH) was called because of a fight that started either in one of two places: after a cheap shot on the field and escalated on the field, or something that started in the stands and ended on the field with that outburst...

Newsnet5 in Cleveland found this video
((HT:andygarhts5455))


Initially, five people were arrested but two were released after the first hours in the investigation.

Here's (believe it or not) chopper video of the moment the fight happened...


And the update


Garfield Heights (OH) City Schools released this statement: “Because the safety and security of every person who attends co-curricular activities at the Garfield Heights City Schools is of the utmost importance, district officials, game officials and security personnel made the decision to cancel the game instantaneously. Local officials took appropriate action, and the community can rest assured knowing that those students of the Garfield Heights City Schools who were involved will be swiftly and appropriately dealt with by the district.”

OSG High: Richmond Returns For Steubenville Football

((HT: WTOV-TV))

If the name Ma'Lik Richmond sounds familiar, it's because he and teammate Trent Mays were convicted as juveniles in the Steubenville High rape case that involved the football team two years ago.

Richmond was sentenced to a year for the charge, served 9 months, is now on probation, and has to register as a sex offender very six months until he turns 38 years old.

Steubenville head coach Rene Sacoccia says he believes in second chances and is putting Richmond out onto the football field in the preseason.

Here's the look at Richmond's reappearance...


Mays, for the record, is serving a 2-year sentence in juvenile detention and is scheduled to be released in January.

OSG High: Haiku Gets FB Player Kicked Off Team, And Then, Not...

((HT: WJW-TV))

Nick Andre was a starting DE for his high school for Rittman (OH) High and his team was in the end of a 1-7 season...

He was asked to write a poem on something in class and Andre took on the ideas of the cliques of his team and its problems. After the peom was read aloud in class the administration felt that they had decided that Andre "Wrote a mean and disrespectful poem about another student and our athletic director/head coach." The principal classified the poem as “hazing, harassment.”

As a result, Andre was suspended for four days and everyone started screaming from the high heavens that the school was wrong in what they did...

Here's the explanation...


Strangely enough, after everyone started taking the school to task for violating Andre's First Amendment rights of free speech, the superintendent of the Rittman School District says the suspension has been overturned, and the junior defensive end has been reinstated to the football team.

Shocking, I know...

OSG High: Steubenville Football Player Must Register As Tier 2 Sex Offender

((HT: WTRF-TV

One of the two Steubenville (OH) High School football players convicted in the rape of a fellow student has to register as a Tier II sex offender.

Ma'Lik Richmond was back in court where he now joins Trent Mays in that stauts. The victim's family, as well as Mays' and Richmond's families were all in court for the hearing.

According to the Ohio Bar Association, a Tier 2 offender "includes those who have been convicted of offenses such as gross sexual imposition with a victim under 13 years old, pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor, and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor when the offender is four or more years older than the victim. Adult offenders must register every 180 days for 25 years; juvenile offenders must register for 20 years."

The defense had asked for Richmond's sex offender registration to end after age 21- pointing to his lack of a criminal record before his prosecution.

The state said that it was mandatory that Richmond receive some type of label and asked that Richmond receive same treatment and same classification as Trent Mays.

Here's the story form the courtroom...
WTRF 7 News Sports Weather - Wheeling Steubenville

Here's the story where Mays was given a Tier II status...

OSG High: Steubenville HSFB Coach Gets Contract Extension... Really...

((HT: Salon.com, McDonough))

Katie McDonough lets us all know that Steubenville High head football coach Reno Saccoccia- for whatever he did (or "didn't do") in the rape case that involved two of his players- gets a contract extension...

In a previous Salon piece during the rape trial in Steubenville, McDonough divulged:

text messages seized from Mays’ cellphone indicate that Saccoccia had seen the video in which another student “joked” that “Trent and Ma’lik raped someone” as soon as it was released.

The day after the incident, Mays texted a friend: “I got Reno. He took care of it and shit ain’t gonna happen, even if they did take it to court. Like he was joking about it so I’m not worried,” according to an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, who testified in the rape case.

He, as a hall of fame head football coach, member of the 300-win club, and someone who dines with the local sheriff, seemed to view himself as untouchable. So, the coach knew about the incident and failed to report it to school administrators and the authorities... in an official crime-reporting capacity...

Saccoccia also failed to discipline players who ferried photos of the victim to each other- until week 9 of the regular season. But his actions may have him in front of a grand jury soon...

FOSG Christi Paul discusses on "Raising America"
((HT: HLN))

OSG High: Creepy Ending To Game In Ohio, Another Ohio School Escapes Death Penalty

((HT: WCMH-TV/NBC4i.com/Yahoo! PrepRally))

This is just plain weird... even for October...

Team A (Washington-Court House, Ohio) loses to Team B (McLain, Ohio) 26-0
Ineligible player from Team A goes through the celebration line with a glove that has a sharp object in it and shakes hands with players from Team B. More than two-dozen players from Team B end up getting tetanus shots from local health department.

Told you it was creepy...

Here's the story...


And, of course, the mother of the student in question is hiring an attorney to defend the accusation...

Still creepy...

In other Ohio news, a school has been banned fom post-season competition in more than one sport- a special accomplishment...

Canal Winchester Harvest Prep is now not allowed in football, girls basketball and boys basketball for the next two years for playing ineligible players.

It gets better...

The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) also says that none of the school's sports teams could play in OHSAA postseason events this school year.

Absolutely none of them... and that takes a true abuse of the rules...

The school did not get an SMU-like "Death Penalty" and can still play in regular season games- although there is no word on any kind of TV ban...

That would have been a first in the memory of the HQ... and this was for everything for violations in recruiting and academics...

Here's some highlights from last basketball season from the Round of 8...
((HT: OhioPrepStars))