High School Sports

A student at Mater Dei High School in California suffered a traumatic brain injury, multiple gashes over his eye, a concussion and a broken nose in the aftermath of a hazing ritual that may indicate wider problems with the culture of the school's football team.

Scott M. Reid of the Orange County Register reported the story, noting the player participated in a hazing ritual called "Bodies." The ritual traditionally requires players to fight each other by exchanging punches in the torso between the hips and shoulders.

The player who suffered the injuries in February was approximately 50 pounds lighter than his opponent, whom he said he had never met prior to the hazing ritual. Per Reid, video of the fight shows the bigger player hit the smaller one in the side of the head and face after throwing him down to the ground.

What's more, players can be heard using racial slurs directed at the player who suffered the injuries even though he is white.

The injuries the player suffered required surgery, and a Santa Ana Police Department investigator recommended felony battery charges against the other player who dealt the blows, per Reid. The smaller player withdrew from the school, while the other player remains on the undefeated football team.

Despite the recommendation from the investigator, the Orange County District Attorney's Office has no plans to file charges.

The injured player's family filed a lawsuit against the school alleging negligence, negligence per se-hazing in violation of the California penal code, negligent failure to warn, train or educate, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, per Reid.

According to the court filing, Mater Dei trainer Kevin Anderson delayed treatment of the injuries after the fight and even told administrators to hold off on contacting the injured player's parents. The parents were not contacted for 90 minutes after the fight.

"Anderson knew how badly [Player 1's] injuries looked and that he was clearly involved in a violent altercation," the court filing said. "Thus, in an effort to shield its No. 1 ranked football team from scrutiny, efforts were made to downplay and/or cover up the latest incident caused by the athletic department's toxic culture."

Mater Dei dean of students Tim O'Hara eventually contacted the injured player's father and said his son was suspended. According to a physician's note, the player was physically unable to attend school at the time.

The lawsuit attempts to highlight problems with the culture at the school, especially when it comes to protecting the dominant football program's image. 

The police report said other players told the injured student not to "snitch" on them. Head football coach Bruce Rollinson and athletic director Kevin Kiernan initially refused to cooperate with the Santa Ana Police Department but eventually only did so two months later.

Rollinson denied even knowing about Bodies and other hazing rituals at the school, although the court filing said he previously told the injured player's father, "If I had a hundred dollars for every time these kids played Bodies or Slappies, I'd be a millionaire."

The suit also states that the coach told the injured player's father he was in a "bind" because the other player who participated in the ritual was the son of one of the volunteer coaches. The police report also said video of the incident was given to linebackers coach Pat Dunbar in February, months before Rollinson was interviewed.

Per Reid, the other player's father told police in February that the issue "had already been handled by the school." His son refused to be interviewed by the police, citing his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights.

"This incident [shows] that Mater Dei is more concerned about protecting its brand as the top-ranked football program in the country than protecting its students," attorney Brian L. Williams said.

Reid noted Mater Dei has also faced multiple civil lawsuits from former students who said they were sexually abused by school employees.

"Mater Dei has a culture of lies and secrecy and this case is right out of their playbook," the player's attorney Michael Reck said. "They've covered up sexual abuse, they've covered up violence and now they're covering up hazing to protect the glory of the football team."     

The Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association has launched an investigation into an allegation that a referee directed a racial slur at a 14-year-old STEM Academy girls basketball player during a game at Smyrna High School in Smyrna, Tennessee, on Wednesday night.

According to Cecil Joyce of the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal, TSSAA Executive Director Bernard Childress said the investigation is in its "very early" stages and is dealing with conflicting reports.

Childress noted that it isn't yet clear if it was a referee or another player who used the racial slur during the game.

After the game, STEM Academy chief executive officer Kristin McGraner wrote in a letter to the TSSAA that a "white male referee approached the 14-year-old Black female player in an aggressive manner and called her the N-word."

Despite the allegations, Joyce noted that the TSSAA reprimanded STEM Academy in three separate letters. The letters detailed a STEM fan being ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct, two STEM players getting ejected and the STEM coach forfeiting the game and removing the team from the court.

One of the letters noted that the coach will be fined $500 for the forfeiture. The game was not completed and the scheduled boys game was not played afterward.

McGraner responded with a letter to the TSSAA, writing:

TSSAA chose to issue three letters of reprimand, financial and participation penalty against the players, and a parent who were dehumanized by the official's action. STEM Prep subsequently called the TSSAA office and Assistant Director Gene Menees directly to discuss this matter. No call has been returned. We demand that swift and decisive action be taken.

McGraner also alleged that the organization is responsible for "systematic racism" and asked for it to review "official screening and hiring practices, the code of conduct governing the behavior of all employees and contracted officials."

A New Jersey high school football coaching legend died Tuesday.

Darren Cooper of NorthJersey.com reported Ramapo head football coach Drew Gibbs died at the age of 59. The school said he died due to "complications from an aortic dissection and complications from surgery."

Cooper reported Gibbs collapsed at Monday's football practice and was taken to the hospital for emergency surgery.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called Gibbs "a giant of a coach and a giant of a man," while a New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association statement read:

"Today, New Jersey scholastic sports lost a true legend. We are deeply saddened by the passing of Ramapo High School's Head Football Coach Drew Gibbs. He was an educator, a mentor and a role model, and our condolences go out to all who knew, loved and were inspired by Coach Gibbs."

Gibbs had coached Ramapo since 2001 and led the program to seven sectional titles.

Former NFL wide receiver and two-time Super Bowl champion Chris Hogan was among the players who suited up for Gibbs.

"He took young men and taught them how to play a game he loved the right way and gave them lessons we all could carry throughout our lives," Hogan told NBC New York. "Ramapo football was and is Drew Gibbs and I know his legacy will continue to live on in that program for a very long time."

Ramapo was scheduled to face Northern Highlands on Friday, but the game was moved to Nov. 26 after the coach's death.         

On Thursday, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League banned the students of Armstrong High School from its hockey games after a cheering section of around 50-60 people chanted vulgarities at the female goalie for the Mars Fightin' Planets team on Oct. 28, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN). 

"The game should've been stopped until the behavior stopped or the fans were escorted out of the building," PIHL Commissioner John Mucha said, adding that the charts were  "disgusting" and "absolutely more than kids being kids."

Armstrong principal Kirk Lorigan said last week that the school was "appalled and embarrassed” by the actions of its student section, per Mike White of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"In my mind, this should've been stopped immediately by anyone that was there who has any moral value at all," he added. "I'm disgusted by it. … There were a lot of people there who could've handled this differently."

Mars coach Steve Meyers said the chants left the goalie in tears after the second period.

"We have no one else. She plays varsity and JV for us," he told the AP. "We've had plenty of girls in this league before and never heard anything like this. With all the training we're required to do as coaches about safe sports and sportsmanship, this should not happen. For it to fail this badly, it's really disappointing."

Team USA Olympic hockey player Meghan Duggan offered the young athlete her support:

Armstrong County commissioners extended the student ban for the school to kids in Grades 7-8 alongside the PIHL's ban, while high school administrators are demanding the league provide two security guards per game. 

"Clearly, the incident that happened on October 28 was completely unacceptable and the entire hockey community must take steps to ensure that any similar conduct will never happen again," the Mars club said in a statement. "We are hopeful that the attention this incident has drawn will shed light on the issues our female athletes face which must not be tolerated and that this attention will help with eliminating this type of conduct from our sport."

The Inglewood (California) High School football team obliterated Inglewood Morningside High School 106-0 on Friday, and now, the school's principal and head coach are apologizing for running up the score. 

"We did not conduct ourselves with sportsmanship and integrity and the final score was unacceptable," Inglewood High principal Debra Tate wrote Tuesday in a statement, according to USA Today's Josh Peter and Chris Bumbaca. "Coach James has also offered his apologies to the Morningside High School football program and the larger school community. ...

"Our administration will work with our coaches to ensure that these mistakes are not repeated in the future, and that the Inglewood High School program conducts itself with the highest level of sportsmanship and integrity going forward."

Inglewood jumped out to a whopping 59-0 lead in the first quarter of Friday's game and didn't take its foot off the gas. UCLA-committed quarterback Justyn Martin tossed 13 touchdowns in the win. 

Morningside coach Brian Collins was disappointed that Inglewood ran up the score, saying to the Los Angeles Times that "it was a classless move." The California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section, which governs Southern California high school sports, also expressed frustration and disappointment with the school, saying in a statement that it expects games to be played "under the strictest code of good sportsmanship," per ABC 7 Los Angeles. 

ESPN analyst Dick Vitale even weighed in on the matter: 

While the story is getting plenty of attention, Morningside player Dayvon Scruggs told ABC 7 that he believes it's not as big of a deal as the media is making it out to be. 

Inglewood now owns high school football's highest-scoring game in the last five years. In 2019, Hilo High School in Hawaii defeated Waiakea High School 104-0, which was the most points scored in a game since 2015. 

The highest-scoring game in high school football history occurred in 1927 when Haven High School in Kansas defeated Sylvia High School 256-0. 

Prized basketball prospect Mikey Williams signed a multiyear endorsement contract with Puma on Thursday that will include future campaigns and product launches.

Williams, a 5-star prospect in the 2023 college basketball recruiting class, is one of the most well-known high school athletes in the country with over 3.3 million followers on Instagram.

"I am excited to join the Puma family this early in my basketball journey," Williams said in a press release. "Puma really understands how to mix hoops and culture, two things I am passionate about."

The 17-year-old guard, who plays for Vertical Academy in North Carolina, becomes the youngest member of a Puma Hoops roster that also features NBA stars LaMelo Ball, Deandre Ayton and RJ Barrett and WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Katie Lou Samuelson, among others.

"Mikey joining our Puma family is exciting news for our brand," Adam Petrick, the company's global director of brand and marketing, said. “His talent on the court and his ability to connect with young athletes and fans alike, will help drive hoops culture forward and inspire the next generation of athletes. He has a bright future ahead of him and we are proud to be a part of his journey."

Williams' first involvement will come as part of Puma's "Not Yet Rated" campaign looking at athletes on the rise who can "help inspire the next generation of youth athletes in a disruptive and unexpected way" through the use of social content.

Rumors about his endorsement deal with Puma emerged in September, when Shams Charania of The Athletic reported the sides were "close" to an agreement on a deal that would capitalize on the new name, image and likeness rights granted to student-athletes.

Most importantly, the new NIL laws ensure Williams will remain eligible to play college basketball if he chooses that route in 2023. He could also opt for a professional path during the gap year before he becomes eligible for the 2024 NBA draft.

An endorsement contract would have previously left an athlete in danger of being declared ineligible by the NCAA. It could still create a conflict if he joins a school with a pre-existing deal with another brand, though:

Williams' deal with Puma includes his use of the company's shoes, including the Court Rider, while he finishes his high school playing career.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has approved House Bill 25, which states students can only take part in school sports based on their gender "at or near" the time of birth.

Republican state representative Valoree Swanson, who authored the bill, said she was "overjoyed" at its passing Monday and said it was necessary to uphold federal Title IX legislation and ensure competition within girls' sports remains fair, per Allyson Waller of the Texas Tribune.

"It's so very, very important that we protect everything that women have gained in the last 50 years," Swanson said at a committee hearing.

As a result of Texas' new law, transgender girls can no longer participate in girls' sports and transgender boys can no longer participate in boys' sports unless there is no corresponding girls sport available at their school. 

Texas' prior University Interscholastic League policy stated students could participate in sports based on their birth certificate, but the new law prevents schools from accepting amended birth certificates, per ESPN's Katie Barnes.

A spokesperson for Texas' Department of State Health Services told Barnes an amended birth certificate "would not be apparent," making it unclear how the state plans to enforce the law.

Opponents of the legislation, which figures to face legal challenges, are worried about the message the law sends to transgender children.

Andrea Segovia, the field and policy coordinator for Transgender Education Network of Texas, told Barnes it's an example of "adults bullying kids."

"At the heart of it is this body legislating trans people out of existence. We're talking about public accommodations," Segovia said. "Trans people exist in these spaces. When you're letting bills like this become law, the message is, 'We don't want you in these spaces.'"

Ricardo Martinez, the CEO of Equality Texas, told Walker his organization is focused on "providing healing to transgender children" in the immediate aftermath of the law being passed and will work to find more state legislators who can help transgender children in the future.

"Our organizations will also begin to shift focus to electing pro-equality lawmakers who understand our issues and prioritize representing the vast majority of Texans who firmly believe that discrimination against trans and [LGBTQ] people is wrong," Martinez said.

The law is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 18 in the middle of the 2021-22 school year.

Three men and one woman were injured in a shooting Friday night at a high school football game between Vigor High School and Williamson High School in Mobile, Alabama.

"This type of gun violence is not going to be tolerated, and as the new chief, we will be very serious about it," Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine said Friday night, according to WKRG's Carey Cox. "If you're involved in this in any way, you need to turn yourself in."

At least one of the people shot suffered life-threatening injuries. Two of the people wounded are juveniles.

Several shots were fired just before 10 p.m. on the west concourse at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, leading to fans scattering onto the field and a delay in the game. Prine said at least two suspects fled the scene in a white sedan but have not been identified.

Ladd-Peebles Stadium was previously the site of a shooting in which nine people were injured in 2019. Metal detectors were installed at the stadium following that incident. It's unclear how the gun(s) got through detection Friday.

A Missouri high school cheerleader says her athletic department "is restricting her participation because of her wheelchair," per Fox 4. 

18-year-old Lacey Kiper, who is entering her second year on the Truman High School (Independence, MO) cheerleading squad, says she was told she could not join her team on the field due to the possibility of her wheelchair damaging the turf.

"They didn’t want my wheels, I guess, to be too heavy and damage a little bit of the turf for me to get stuck in it," Kiper said.

Kiper was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta Type 5, a condition that causes her bones to easily break. But she chose to pursue cheerleading two years ago as a way to feel included.

"It’s definitely been very challenging to find someplace to feel involved because, for the most part, I’ve only ever been the only wheelchair user in my school," Kiper said.

Kiper's family says the school has made it unnecessarily hard for her to cheerlead.

"She said, ‘I want to do cheerleading.’ I told the school I would put her on the mats if they want," her father, Charles Kiper, said. "I’ll be there for every game if they want. I’ll be sure that she’s got someone to assist her in any way to be a part of this team. And they have pretty much turned me down on most everything."

Lacy Kiper sees the potential damage to the turf as just another excuse from the school to exclude her because her requests to cheer for other sports have also been denied.

"Even for the basketball gym, they said no. And I was like, ‘That’s a floor that I go on all the time,'" she said.

The Independence School District said it is unable to talk about this case directly unless Lacy's father signs off on privacy releases, which he has refused to do up to this point.     

SMAC Entertainment, which was co-founded by Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, will be producing a documentary regarding the Bishop Sycamore High School football team.

Chris Vannini of The Athletic relayed a press release revealing the news, which also included information that SMAC Entertainment had "exclusive rights and access" to the program's former head coach, Roy Johnson.

Bishop Sycamore received national attention after losing 58-0 to IMG Academy in a nationally televised game on ESPN.

News and reports about the program trickled out in ensuing days and weeks, including that ESPN may have been duped into believing that the online-only school had Division I recruits.

"Bishop Sycamore told us they had a number of Division I prospects on their roster, and to be frank, a lot of that, we could not verify," ESPN's Anish Shroff said during the broadcast (h/t Andrew Bucholtz of Awful Announcing).

"They did not show up in our database, they did not show up in the databases of other recruiting services. So, OK, that's what you're telling us, fine, that's how we take it in. From what we've seen so far, this is not a fair fight, and there's got to be a point where you're worried about health and safety."

The school's validity even got the attention of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who announced that he would be asking the state's department of education to investigate the institution.

The state of Ohio identified Bishop Sycamore as a "non-charter, non-tax supported school," per NBC4, who did some digging of its own.

"NBC4 Investigates spent the better part of the last week digging through records and following a trail of addresses that reveal no actual school building or curriculum associated with Bishop Sycamore," NBC4's Jamie Ostroff wrote.

School director Andre Peterson fired Johnson following the IMG Academy game, and Tyren Jackson was hired in his place. He told NBC4:

"We do not offer curriculum," he said. "We are not a school. That's not what Bishop Sycamore is, and I think that's what the biggest misconception about us was, and that was our fault. Because that was a mistake on paperwork."

Reports about Johnson also came to light, with two former players speaking anonymously to Zion Olojede of Complex about their experiences with the program in 2020. They shared stories that included fighting, rostering players with warrants for their arrest, health and safety concerns and more.

Actor and comedian Kevin Hart, in conjunction with HartBeat Productions, is also producing a documentary on the Bishop Sycamore football team, per Front Office Sports.