S.F. high school student injured in fight at game
A fight involving multiple players ended a playoff boys basketball game between San Francisco’s Riordan High School and Sacramento’s Inderkum High School Thursday night.
Video from the game that ricocheted around social media showed two Inderkum players roughly foul a Riordan player, one briefly wrapping his arms around and pulling the Riordan player before the whistle is blown with a minute and 15 seconds left in the game. Another Riordan player then comes up and shoves one of the Inderkum players, pushing him into a referee, the video shows.
After that, shoves quickly turn to punches, and nearly the entire Inderkum bench joins the brawl. The Riordan player who first shoved the Inderkum player was knocked to the ground, where he laid as coaches gathered around him, getting the other players out of the way.
Meanwhile, several adults and coaches ran to the court to pull the fighting students away from each other, while Riordan’s coaches kept their players on the bench from joining the fight. Amid the chaos, a few children even ran onto the court, before being chased and lifted away by players and adults.
Riordan coach Joey Curtin told SB Live that the student who was knocked out regained consciousness but was taken to a local hospital as a precautionary measure.
School officials did not respond immediately to questions about the player’s health on Friday morning.
On Thursday night, Curtin called the fight “pathetic,” SB Live reported.
“It just shouldn’t have happened. We were playing great basketball and for it to end like that … horrible,” he told the sports news outlet.
The California Interscholastic Federation said Friday that because the game ended early, the score at that time, 61-52, will be used as the result, meaning that Riordan won and will advance in the playoffs.
CIF officials have also suspended players involved in the fight “in any way,” Riordan president Tim Reardon confirmed in a statement. Riordan will also lose its home court advantage for the semi-final game.
Officials did not specify how many players would be suspended, or how long the suspensions would last.
While Reardon said he understood CIF’s difficult position and accepted the consequences, he expressed disappointment that his school would not get to host the next playoff game as planned.
“When the Riordan administration spoke with CIF Director, William Chavarin, we were pleased that he shared how the Riordan coaches and other adults did the absolute best they could do under the difficult circumstances,” he said in his statement. “That’s why we are disappointed and confused that we are not being allowed to host the semi-final game.”
He added that the “altercation is not indicative of Riordan’s values nor our players’ values.”
“Although we are extremely disappointed that our team is facing these new challenges, I’m confident that our coaches and administrators will make this a learning experience for everyone involved,” he wrote.