It’s no wonder that with the love affair Americans seem to have with violence and sport, we have some bleed-over into our schools. 

At a recent football game between Sharon High School and Hickory High School in Pennsylvania, a brawl involving members of both teams broke out and prompted officials to call the game early.

The brawl began when a punt return ended in a one-on-one scuffle between two players. The pushing and shoving quickly escalated into a full-blown fight, and resulted in a total of 14 students – seven from each team – being suspended for a game, and from a week of practice. 

There have been numerous sports movies made that include violence at the high school, college and pro levels as a normal occurrence.

The amount of violence for public consumption available on television these days is amazing. I’m not just talking about the mixed martial arts competitions either. There are plenty of shows on TV where a fight breaks out with little provocation. 

It’s no wonder that there is some carryover into our daily lives – even in Brookings.

I heard that there were some acts of violence carried out against Brookings-Harbor High School fans on Friday night. 

All I have is second-hand knowledge of the events that took place, but according to witnesses, there were Bruin fan’s cars keyed, and one fan had all four tires slashed.

Now, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – there is a place for violence in sports: on the field.

I’m not talking about truly violent acts, such as punching, kicking or gouging out the eyes, but the aggression that is inherent in each sport; tackling in football, slide-tackling in soccer, pinning or submitting an opponent in wrestling, getting physical on the post in basketball, etc. I’m sure that you can find sport-appropriate aggression in almost every sport, it happens.

In Friday night’s game against Del Norte, there was more than a little of that aggression on the field, and a little violence. I never saw a punch thrown, but there were a lot of questionable tackles and an excessive amount of unnecessary post-play contact going on. 

When it happens, referees are paid to quell the action before it gets out of hand. Sometimes refs aren’t very good. Or, they are biased. Whichever the case may be, it then becomes the coaches’ responsibility to remind them of their jobs.

Good coaches do that, great coaches do it in a way that makes the ref think it was their idea. I’ve seen a little of both with the BHHS coaching staff.

No matter what happens on the field though, it needs to stay on the field. 

Shootings at Oakland Raiders games because the victim was wearing the opposing team’s gear. 

Brawls at basketball games because fans can’t agree to disagree about whose team is better. It is utterly ridiculous. 

Slashing an opponents fan’s tires is ludicrous. I hope that the Bruin fan can find it in their heart to forgive and forget – and I hope that the police catch the moron in question.

No matter what happens, we all need to realize that there is a rivalry between Del Norte and BHHS. It is not going away anytime soon. In fact, unless we stop playing them in every sport, it will never go away.