England, Ark. (KATV) — The England School District is implementing tougher rules for students and fans following several fights at school sporting events.
This comes after the high-profile brawl between England and a rival school during the 2A Boys Basketball State Tournament in March.
Whether it was a brawl in football or in basketball, fighting has clouded this past athletic season for the England Lions. But now, school administration is aiming to change what they call a toxic culture.
“Here’s what we have. Unfortunately, we have a toxic athletic culture in England. Players, and particularly fans,” Dr. Judy Hubbell, England Superintendent, told Channel 7 News on Monday, offering a blunt assessment of her school community.
In September, England faced the Drew Central Pirates out of Monticello on the gridiron. England trailed by 30 points in the third quarter, and after a downfield block by a Lion receiver poured over onto the sideline, a fight broke out.
14 England players were ejected as a result of that incident, which forced the team to cancel its next game against Mayflower.
Then in March, the Lions met the Barton Bears in the state basketball playoffs.
In the final seconds, England turned the ball over as they were behind by 1 point. Barton would walk away with the win, but not after a Lion started another brawl.
That fight led to 12 total ejections, 7 from England. Since the game was played at a neutral site at Poyen High School in Grant County, deputies began investigating the incident. 3 England student-athletes would eventually be charged for their involvement in the brawl.
Now, school leaders say they’ve had enough.
“We have banned our student who threw the punch over at Poyen for a year…he’s a graduated senior, but he can’t come on our campus for a year,” states Hubbell.
Starting next school year, a new handbook will be in place.
In a release that was addressed to Lance Taylor, the Executive Director of the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA), several new changes will be made:
- If a student athlete starts a fight during a game, they will be banned from participating in sports for one calendar year
“It’s none of this, getting in a fight the last game of basketball and then go on and play baseball. That’s not going to happen anymore, you’re going to be banned from sports for a year,” says Hubbell.
Other new rules involve fans:
- Fans will be strictly segregated according to designated seating areas for the home team and for the visitor team
- Fans will be banned from standing behind the goals in basketball games or standing in the end zones at football games
- Fans must exit the game immediately when the game is over. They will be expected to stay off the floor during basketball games, as well as after the games
- Any fan who gets on the floor will be escorted out and banned from the games for one calendar year
- Because we have a small gym, we will no longer allow fans to sit on the bottom row of bleachers because of the close proximity of the floor
“We’re going to strictly segregate fans–visitors and the home team–on their side of the gym and they’re going to stay there,” states Hubbell.
“If the fans keep getting so out of hand, we may play some games without fans…I’m just so disappointed that our players and fans behave like they do sometimes. And we’re going to get a handle on that one way or another,” she adds.
A stronger police presence will be on hand at select sporting events:
- We will hire four off-duty Lonoke County Sheriff’s Deputies to be on duty at our games. They will be briefed on our new rules and asked to rigorously enforce these directives
“You do not solve problems with your fist,” says Hubbell.
“We’re gonna preach sportsmanship to these kids every time we get a chance.”
Channel 7 News asked Bobby Swofford with AAA about what England is implementing. He stated that it is not too unusual.
“The AAA has a sportsmanship handbook that kind of has an outline of all schools of how they’re supposed to behave…what England is doing is actually a step beyond that,” states Swofford.
“They’re taking some extra precautions to make sure that their students and their coaches are put in a situation where they’re going to be successful as for sportsmanship’s concern, and we applaud them.”
In addition to the new rules, England has banned the fans who stormed the court during the March playoff game from sporting events for one calendar year. The release from the England School District indicates that this is more severe than the AAA’s recommendation, which was to ban the fans for a minimum of the first five basketball games of the new season.
In addition to the aforementioned new rules, the new handbook will include these rules as well:
- If a student-athlete removes their shirt before entering the locker room, they will be disciplined by the coach or athletic director
- We will post signage in our athletic facilities with the new rules posted
- We will form a chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to help our players develop a stronger moral compass
- We will continue to collaborate with the AAA to bring about good sportsmanship in our district
