SLUGFEST! : Some Say Pros’ Antics Are Influencing Prep Athletes

Know the old joke about going to a fight and a hockey game broke out? One sociologist says that these days when you go to almost any sporting event, a pro wrestling match is imminent.

The NBA playoffs are one big tug of war. A Lakers-Celtics game is always played to Dueling Elbows. The Mets were in a series of bench-clearing skirmishes on the way to the pennant last year--including a few in spring training--and the Reds and Braves had fisticuffs on successive days recently.

The big-time colleges aren’t exempt either. UCLA’s basketball team had more fights last season than Ray Leonard has had in five years. Georgetown’s basketball ascension was accompanied by intimidating tactics as well as constant fights and shoving matches.

Now the problem has filtered down to the high schools, and many believe it’s a result of prep players watching their idols punch each other on television.

For example:

A Diamond Bar vs. Pasadena high school football game was called in the fourth quarter last season after an on-field brawl.

The CIF 2-A basketball championship game last March between Woodbridge and Riverside Banning began with a fight between two players and escalated when a school booster entered the court and slugged a player.

A basketball game between Montebello and Santa Fe high schools that decided a playoff spot was ended early in the fourth quarter after a scuffle that included ejection of Santa Fe Coach Joe Mendoza.

The Grant High School girls’ basketball team is on probation for the upcoming season after fighting with the North Hollywood team. And a Cerritos College woman basketball player had a fight with two opponents from College of the Sequoias in a hallway after the game, causing both locker rooms to empty.

The Palos Verdes and North Torrance high school baseball teams had a punch-out after a tense 1-0 game that included a controversial umpiring call. A local newspaper had a picture of a knockdown-in-progress the next day on the front sports page.

Harbor College’s baseball team, smarting from a loss to San Bernardino, came out swinging two days later and had a fight with the same team--in the first inning.

Random incidents, mostly one of a kind for each school. But is there a pattern? Has the regularity and visibility of violence in professional and college games--seen almost daily on network and cable television--made fighting part of the status quo?

Hal Harkness, director of athletics for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said: “As long as they keep showing it on TV--and when was the last time you saw somebody kicked out of a basketball game on TV for fighting?--it’s going to cause us tremendous problems on this level. . . . The kids see it on TV and seem to think it’s part of the game.”

Mike Neily, coach of the North Torrance baseball team, said he was embarrassed by the incident with P.V., his only one in eight years of coaching. He said: “Obviously the pros are the image-makers for the kids--it can’t help but filter down.” Neily said he was irritated by media coverage of the fight, which, he said, detracted from a well-played 1-0 game.

“The percentage (of incidents) is obviously low, but when it happens the media likes to get it,” Neily said. “Having pictures in the paper didn’t help. They should’ve had a picture of the pitcher who beat us 1-0.”

Referring to fights by the pros, Neily said: “You know if you watch the news that night what you’re going to see--the fight. I don’t know if that means that’s what we want to see or if that’s what the media thinks we want to see. It concerns me, as a coach and an educator.”

Montebello basketball coach Jeff Schwartz, whose team was involved in the incident with Santa Fe, said he’s not convinced television is the culprit. “It’s the only incident I’ve had in many years of coaching,” he said. “I think basketball’s become more physical, so there’s that possibility (of confrontations). I’d rather see the refs call 30 fouls on each team than ‘let ‘em play,’ as they say.”

David Marple, a sociology professor who teaches a course in “The Sociology of Sports” at Loyola Marymount, lists other possible causes: increased emphasis on sports as entertainment and increased emphasis by coaches and parents on intense play, even in grade school.

“Television is certainly one factor, what we call a modeling effect,” Marple said.

“The question is: Is sport sport anymore? We’re seeing sport becoming more of a display spectacle, even at lower levels. We’ve got our society viewing even lower levels as entertainment. What’s happening on the big level is filtering down. . . . If (violence) becomes more acceptable, it may be thought to be the normal course of experience.”

Marple said the stress on increased intensity--an expression now almost a coach’s cliche--has had a noticeable effect this decade.

Marple, who said his role as a scientist who observes sports makes him a “professional spectator,” referred to coaches “who sanction their kids to be overly aggressive.” Marple said some coaches imply to athletes that fighting is “a certification of intensity.”

In the Woodbridge-Banning basketball game, Woodbridge star Adam Keefe was hit hard on a drive to the basket; then he chased and shoved his opponent, Richard Reyna. Both were ejected. Woodbridge won without Keefe, and teammate Vince Bryan said afterward: “The fight helped our intensity. We picked up our game a notch after that.”

Terry Roche, who coached the Diamond Bar football team that had a fight with Pasadena last year, said the intensity of football leads to heated tempers. “Emotions were high. We were running the clock down,” Roche said. “Our quarterback took a knee. What happened after that (to start the fight), I couldn’t tell you. I think it was frustration. It happens in high school sports. The Pasadena folks are great. We shook hands after.

“We play an emotional brand of football. We try to get excited. A lot of times, kids lose sight of what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Sociologist Marple said: “In La Habra last November, some Pee Wee football parents beat up an official. To me it wasn’t all that surprising.” He said the increasing number of fights in girls’ sports could also be anticipated, since those have been taking on an increased intensity.

“Five years ago it might have have been surprising,” Marple said. “It’s not surprising to me now. Women emulate the behavior on TV.”

Marple said half-jokingly that if sports continue on their current path, all will start to look like professional wrestling.

Can that be avoided?

Most coaches said yes.

So did David Barthol, professor emeritus of sociology at UCLA, who taught “Elements of Psychology of Sport.” He said it was “certainly logical” to expect televised fights to affect younger athletes. But he added: “I’m reluctant to believe anything is different than in the past--though there does seem to be more violence. If there are only a few (incidents), we tend to exaggerate the occurrences.”

Montebello’s Schwartz said coaches have to impress on their athletes that “if you do that (look for a fight), you’re out.”

Neily said that after his team’s fight with Palos Verdes, coaches, administrators and parents from both schools met to smooth over bad feelings and discuss ideas to avoid future incidents.

Carson High football coach Gene Vollnogle’s rugged teams have been known for their physical style while winning three City 4-A titles in the last five years, but they rarely have skirmishes away from the ball. “You just can’t permit that kind of stuff,” Vollnogle said. “You have to set the rules early and enforce them. You can’t permit that nonsense. If we were doing that kind of stuff, I wouldn’t be here anymore.”

Jack Kordich, basketball coach at San Pedro High, is one of the least demonstrative coaches during games and demands that his players behave. “I just kicked a kid off who’s probably my best because he doesn’t have enough self-control,” he said. “The job doesn’t pay enough” to put up with unmanageable players. Kordich added, though: “If anything, the high school kids have more control than the pros.”

Harkness said the school district’s biggest concern is players or coaches who come off the bench and escalate a heated situation.

“We’ve taken the tack that if a non-participating player comes off the bench during a fight, he can be suspended from sports the rest of the school year,” Harkness said. “We hope that message comes across this year.

“I don’t think you’re ever going to put a stop to youngsters who lose their temper in the flow of the game. It’s the youngsters coming off the bench, who are not involved, that are the focus for us. We can take care of the players on the floor.

“We’d like to put a stop to all of it--but human nature tells me there are going to be incidents.”