Hearing held over brawl in Port Gibson
Published 11:45 am Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Port Gibson High School has been declared the winner of Friday night’s game against Raymond, a contest that was stopped in the third quarter when an on-field brawl broke out.
The Mississippi High School Activities Association made its decision after an investigative hearing Monday afternoon.
The score at the time the game was called, 38-10, stands, said first-year MHSAA director Don Hinton, who declined further comment.
Any sanctions from the fight would be handed down today, said MHSAA spokesman Todd Kelly. Port Gibson coach Lynn Lang was at the hearing, along with the school’s principal and superintendent. Lang said he expects Hinton to suspend the players involved in the fight, but thought there would be no fines, probation or any loss of home games for Port Gibson.
Port Gibson improved to 6-1 overall and 2-1 in Region 6-4A after the win over Raymond. Port Gibson is currently tied for second place in the region, and if it wins its three remaining league games, would host a first-round Class 4A playoff game.
“I know I’m going to have some players suspended for the next game with Florence,” Lang said Monday evening. “But we’re not going to lose a home game or face a fine or probation. In fact, Mr. Hinton commended both coaching staffs for managing their sidelines. We were able to keep our guys, who were on the sideline, off the field.”
A Raymond player suffered a compound fracture of his leg as Port Gibson’s Adarius Barnes scored on a long touchdown run.
Not long after that, the fight began. Lang said Raymond’s players were upset about the injury.
“It was unfortunate the kid got hurt with the compound fracture,” Lang said. “I went out to see about him, and one of the Raymond players came at me. I told the officials, ‘You need to watch these guys, they’re getting mad.’ Adarius had just scored and it was one of their own guys who had fell on the kid’s leg. And it was a bad break, you could see the bone had broken the skin.”
Port Gibson converted its two-point conversion following the Barnes touchdown for a 38-10 lead. Two plays later, the fight broke out.
Calls to Raymond football coach Charles Brown were not returned.