[EKUAlum05]

An average of 8 post game fights per year in nearly 40,000 events...

I picked a random school and looked at their REGULAR season schedules for baseball (34), Softball (30), B basketball (28), G basketball (26), B soccer (20), G soccer (17) and volleyball (33). That is 188 contests excluding any playoffs. Multiply that by 200 schools (37,600) times 3 years equals 112,000.

It seems to me that this is a VERY minor problem. There are probably many, many more fights DURING contests...I think the KHSAA should send out a directive prohibiting any athletic event so as to avoid altercations. (tongue firmly planted in cheek)

It happens in all walks of life, organizations, and often times our bosses make rules for the simple reason they can and they need to justify their existence.

Of those 24 fights I wonder how many were escalations from lax officiating during the game?

Kids don't just choose to fight after the game simply because they lost. Typically there is a specific confrontation that has been building the entire evening with an opposing player that could either be diffused or at the very least made aware to the coaching staff by a KHSAA official.

The problem comes when kids are able to jaw and throw cheap shots throughout the evening over and over without punishment by the officials or coaches. In defense of the coach, if the official doesn't flag it or notify the coach it may be hard to pick up on.

There have been countless instances where a Coach has held an angry player out of the post-game hand shake.

Certianly is unfair to say this would remedy all the instances... but tighter officiating from a KHSAA crew would certainly help in some of these instances for sure.