Merged Thread: AC/Watagua postings

It's a shame that a conference championship game, or any game for that matter, ended like this.

A couple of things to think about.
1) A team whose players or coaches accumulate 3 or more ejections for fighting during the regular season will not be allowed to participate in the playoffs. If six are ejected in the same game, then those six will cause the team to lose its playoff priveleges.

2) The penalty for being ejected in the last game of the season carries over to the next athletic season.

football- ejection from that contest, miss the next contest at that level, miss all contest in the interim.

all other sports-ejection from that contest, miss the next two contest at that level, and miss all the contest in the interim.

These rules are straight from the NCHSAA handbook. Of course Dick Knox can overule any of these I guess, depending on how he views the incident. But if you go by the rulebook, both teams are done, McDowell goes instead, and all the players and coaches ejected are suspended one or two games in the next sport they play.

I know both Pete Hardee and Gary Comer, and I know that both coaches take pride in sportsmanship and their teams playing hard. Neither coach is happy of the teams behavior, I'm sure. But when your dealing with teenage kids, they will sometimes make bad decisions no matter how much you stress proper behavior, especially in such a high tense game with all the marbles riding on it. Just like parenting, you can teach your child to make the right choices, but sometimes when the pressure is on, they make the wrong one.

 

What Really Happened

Some of the accounts here are pretty accurate. Pretty much everything except the post about Alexander Central's "class and sportsmanship." Anyone who has been around NW4A baseball had to get a good chuckle out of that one.

Here is exactly what happened. Play at the plate. Catcher is a little overagressive with his tag, but basically it's hard-nosed baseball. Runner and catcher get in each others' faces (the catcher is not holding him down so he can be hit, which someone said earlier and was way off, they're both on their feet). Pitcher sucker punches runner (sadly this part is true). ACHS bench empties. Seven to eight Cougars gang up on WHS catcher who somehow never gets knocked off his feet, but takes about 10 good shots from half their team. Has a bump on head the size of a golf ball. Has his helmet ripped off and used as a weapon against him. WHS P pretty much runs away. A couple small scuffles break out around the edge of things. A WHS player who was restraining a teammate is blind-sided -- a cheap shot. The ACHS guy that hit him then takes off running into the OF.

Where are the coaches, someone asked? One WHS coach went into the pile of players pummeling the catcher and somehow managed to pull him out of there before the mob on him killed him. The other WHS coaches came out and were actively trying to break up the fight. ACHS coaches about got trampled by their own team as they emptied the dugout. In the end the ACHS coaches were just concerned with saving their playoff berth, they didn't seem much to care that they had guys 8-on-1ing a WHS player who hadn't done anything.

WHS threw one stupid, moronic, idiotic, indefensible, cowardly punch. The kid who did it should probably be in jail. It was disgraceful. Not letting the umps handle it -- emptying the bench as ACHS did to gang up on the catcher (who hadn't really done anything!) was not exactly the right way to handle it. It was even more disgraceful.

Is there a tape? Yeh. I've seen it and it backs everything from above up with visual evidence. The state of NC, and officials from WHS and ACHS have all seen it by now. It would be a real shock if either of these teams plays another game this year. They may even begin next conference season 0-2 because of all the ejections (WHS did have a couple players stay in the dugout or right in front and several position players who left their positions but not to participate -- to break it up. ACHS had 15-20 guys throwing punches, compared to 2 or 3 from WHS, so the Cougs can pretty much forget avoiding punishment).

Ultimately, it was a really sad day for baseball and both teams deserve whatever punishment they get.

One last note -- the WHS fans (well, one in particular) were a bit out of control, mainly aimed at ACHS players which is wrong. The ACHS coaches and fans rode the ump pretty hard, after about every pitch. Players also shouted derisive things at WHS pitcher. Should this powder keg of emotions been held in check better by the administrations of the schools. Duh, obviously. Is that an excuse for any of the players' actions during the fight??? Um, not hardly. Gotta keep your head in this game, no matter what.

 

Well, zap you are right and wrong. Not sure where you were sitting, but both teams' coaches were actively trying to break up the fight. One thing is for sure, the pitcher threw one heck of a sucker punch. I thought the tag by the catcher was too aggressive, kind of like a cheap shot. Being a former catcher myself, I never resorted to this tactic, at least not as aggressive as the Watauga catcher.

The umps easily could have stopped this whole fiasco from the getgo. I place the blame to them. Both schools definitely should and will be punished, WHS should suffer the stiffer penalty for starting the altercation however. I guess we will see what happens.

Also, I have also seen Alexander Central play several times in Statesville, and they have always showed class and sportsmanship. Same for Watauga. This was just an unfortunate situation that should have been stopped before it started.

 

NCHSSA RULES

Fresh off the press release: Alexander and Watagua have been ruled ineligible for the playoffs. McDowell gets the playoff spot. Both schools are fined $1000.00 and any player (sophmores & juniors) deemed involved by the NCHSAA from watching the video will be suspended in their next season ( 1 game for football, 2 for basketball or baseball.) Good luck in the Playoffs Titans!

 

Well rules are rules I guess. Sounds like a cheap way for a team to get into the playoffs, but the kids can blame themselves on this one. Good Luck to Mcdowell.

 

Zapruder

I hate to disagree with you, but the catcher was more that a "little overaggressive" with his tag. With the tension in the air because of the signs on the brick wall and past experience between the teams there was a lot of energy in the air. If the catcher and pitcher could have controlled themselves then it would not have went as far as it did. If the catcher did not get knocked off of his feet then was he really hit that hard.

By the way, our runner had to go to the hospital for stitches last night after the game.

I wouldn't really down ACHS with the sportsmanship comments. Take a look at yourselves.

Well, it is official. I just heard that both teams have been suspended and fined $1000.00. I guess it maybe does not matter to Watauga much, but I am very sorry for All players involved.

 

The ruling by the NCHSAA was the right one. It's a damned shame for the Cougars. They were only two inning from the playoffs, and nobody wants to face that pitching staff in the playoffs. The tape of the incident clearly shows that the Watauga pitcher was a cheap shot artist, but there is no way the type of behavior that followed can be accepted. As for the injured Cougar (the victim of a sucker punch), he is OK.

 

achs watauga game

well...i was at the game...and i wanna say this...the first blow was a very strong sucker punch from that pitcher and they deserved to have their butts kicked in my opinion. and lemme tell ya...they got their butts kicked. not a cougar had a scratch on them...except for Chris who took the first hit, which was some crap anyway. Word is about 4 or 5 pioneers went to the hospital...Go cougars!

 

Hey themafia, that is the longest single sentence in history. Use one of these .

 

IMHO: It's crazy to think that either team did ANYTHING right in this situation.