[Stardust]

As a 14-year old, I was a member of an all-star baseball team playing in a state tournament game that became involved in a wild post-game brawl. The instigators were the two teams' coaches, with one of our coaches allegedly responding to "fighting words" uttered by one of the other team's coaches. Four coaches hit the ground rolling and wrestling over a bat and the players from both teams rushed onto the field and started throwing punches. A large contingent of state police officers attended our team's next game in the tournament.

Sometimes coaches are more to blame than players for post game incidents, and coaches should be held responsible for player misconduct and their own misconduct after games. If they have no control over their own players, then they have no business coaching them. If my parents had realized the behavior that our coaches condoned and modeled, my baseball career might have ended with that road trip. :biggrin:

Absolutely correct. And I'm sure the coaches in these High Schools that the 24 incidents took place were disciplined. So, how do you eliminate this from ever happening again in a High School sport? Trust me, coaches have to diffuse tempers in many games per year. I'm not advocating the elimination. I've participated or coached in probably a few thousand games in my life and I can't remember a time where the two teams have not participated in a postgame hand shake. But, in this litigation happy society, and the fact that it does happen in our very state, as well as across the country. How do you eliminate it and protect schools and taxpayers from having to pay for litigation of a single incident?