Odds and Ends from the Wide World of High School Sports

By Preston Williams
Thursday, December 13, 2007

What kind of year has it been in high school sports around the country? So glad you asked. Here's a sampling of the quirky and absurd culled from newspapers and wire services:

Burnside, Iowa: Indianapolis Colts tight end Dallas Clark was ejected from a girls' basketball game for berating officials from the stands. The state playoff game pitted Clark's alma mater, Twin River Valley, against Southeast Webster-Grand. Southeast Webster-Grand won.

Marathon, Fla.: Marathon High School decided it would not play against rival Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame for at least a year after an incident at Curley in which Marathon's junior varsity girls' basketball players drank water containing ammonia -- possibly urine -- from a cooler that Curley had provided.

Pikeville, Ky.: Allen Central High School agreed to remove the Confederate flag from its gym after officials from David School, a private high school, threatened not to play a basketball game because they said the flag was a form of taunting to its black player. The David coach alleged that Allen Central fans had waved Confederate flags at the player in a game last year. In an interview, an Allen Central cheerleader referred to her black friends as "colored," earning her "Third-Worst Person in the World" distinction from TV commentator Keith Olbermann.

Lawton, Okla.: City workers spent two nights dropping poisonous pellets into prairie dog holes because the animals had been burrowing on the Lawton High School athletic fields and at a neighboring park. The move drew protesters who considered the practice cruel and the aluminum phosphide pellets dangerous to humans. "We don't want some kid going back on a fly ball, worrying that he might step in a hole and break his ankle," a city official said.

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. : A referee on hand to call a game at Cold Spring Harbor High was arrested on charges of endangering the welfare of a child after a girls' basketball player told police that the official had made inappropriate comments to her about her feet and allegedly followed her down a school hallway.

Dexter, Maine : A boy who wore the Dexter High Tiger mascot outfit said he was attacked by fans in a back stairwell after a girls' basketball game, but because he was wearing the mascot head, he could not identify his attackers. The incident began when he felt someone pull on the costume's tail. When he turned around, he was hit in the face, resulting in a bloody nose.

Colonie, N.Y. : An eighth-grade wrestler from a private Christian school said he would forfeit his opportunity to compete for a state title if it meant wrestling either of the girls in his weight class. "The Bible talks about youth, lust," the school's athletic director said. "The sexual attraction starts in junior high, and to put a boy and a girl together grappling and grabbing each other for holds, we just don't think that that honors the Lord. We feel it's wrong for our wrestlers to wrestle around and grope and grab a young lady."

Boca Raton, Fla. : Jon Kaweblum, the athletic director at Weinbaum Yeshiva High School, designed a kippah (a Jewish skullcap) with two clips sewn under the fabric to keep it in place, making it easier for athletes to wear during competition. Bobby pins are considered a hazard by some state high school associations . . .

. . . such as in Buena, N.J., where two Woodrow Wilson female athletes who were going immediately from their track and field sectional championship to the prom were told they could not compete in the 400-meter hurdles because they had bobby pins in their hair. One girl's mom helped remove hers so she could compete. The other girl, who had run the second-fastest time in South Jersey earlier in the season, was unable to remove her pins.

Powder Springs and Zebulon, Ga. : The McEachern High School wrestling booster club and the Pike County High athletic director each hired private investigators to tail athletes to prove that they were ineligible to compete at the schools they attended because they had not legitimately established new residences. The work done by the investigators resulted in disqualifications for the athletes and forfeits for the events in which they competed.

Gainesville, Fla. : Because of gender equity concerns, the Florida High School Athletic Association said it will test flag football and softball players for steroids along with football players, baseball players and weightlifters.

Louisville: A man who coached softball and volleyball at Western High School resigned amid an investigation that he had used his teeth to remove a candy garter from a female student at the prom. A picture of the incident fell into the hands of staff members.

Costa Rica : Much to the chagrin of high school administrators, an online gambling service accepted wagers on the high school football game between Southlake Carroll (Tex.) and Miami Northwestern, establishing Carroll as an eight-point favorite in a game that was televised by ESPNU. Carroll had opened as a 10-point favorite. "If they are going to put the game on TV, we're going to put a line on it," the founder of the Web site said. "I don't care if it's Little League baseball or putt-putt."

Des Moines : Catholic high school wrestlers were told they would not be allowed to wear ashes on their foreheads in the state wrestling tournament, the first day of which fell on Ash Wednesday. Some Catholics wear ash crosses on their foreheads to observe the beginning of Lent. Officials thought the ash could get into an opponent's eyes or mouth.

Mobile, Ala. : The Alabama High School Athletic Association fined Leflore High School $1,000, more than three times the usual fine amount, for celebrating its 6A state boys' basketball championship with "flagrant unsportsmanlike conduct." "Several players removed their jerseys," the association noted in its announcement of the fine, "and one player actually stripped off his uniform pants and exposed his backside." It should be noted that he was wearing spandex shorts underneath.

Eldridge, Iowa : The mother of a North Scott High School wrestler allowed her teenage son to drink beer at home with his stepfather, and it resulted in his being benched by school officials. The officials were alerted after a teacher said she smelled alcohol on the student. It was the 18-year-old's third alcohol-related good-conduct violation in three years. "It was in our home. He was not caught doing anything that he shouldn't have been doing," the mother said. "That's not to say we accept it, but I'd rather have my son alive and watch him wrestle for a wonderful university next year than to put him in the ground."

Worcester, Mass. : St. Peter-Marian High School banned a senior baseball player, alleging that he threatened to kill the coach. The player reportedly said to a teammate, "If I don't start third base, I'm going to kill Coach Coyle." Peter Coyle said he felt threatened by the player for that and other dealings with the player's family.

Renton, Wash. : The Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association, though not banning it, defined booing as one of several unacceptable behaviors at high school sporting events, giving administrators broader guidelines to control crowd behavior. Other unacceptable behaviors include "making disrespectful or derogatory yells, chants, songs or gestures"; "booing or heckling an official's decision" and "yelling that antagonizes opponents."

Varsity Letter is a weekly column about high school sports in the Washington area.