Friday night at a high school basketball game in Cairo, Georgia, turned into a Friday night at the fights. A brawl broke out after a close overtime game between the Cairo Syrupmakers – an incredible name by the way – and the Westover Patriots.
Tensions were reportedly high throughout the 77-74 Syrupmakers win, with multiple technical fouls being handed out during the game. Those high tensions boiled over after the game, leading to a massive all-out brawl.
Video shows players, coaches, and family and fans from the stands involved in a wild scene with dozens of people on the court during the melee. There were punches thrown, and pepper spray used during fight.
According to a reporter, who was at the game and on the court when it all went down, the Westover head coach confronted a Cairo Syrupmakers player after the game. The exchange between the two got heated before a punch was thrown.
The reporter didn’t know who threw the punch, but said that it appeared to be thrown by “an assistant coach of some sort” from the Westover staff. After that punch was thrown, all hell broke loose.
Fans came out of the stands, players started going after each other, and even coaches were mixing it up with one another. Police then got involved and someone, who was not a police officer, set off pepper spray.
In other words, pure chaos.
Of course, the school system had to weigh in on the action. They released a statement on the matter which promised, after an investigation, that the “appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against any individual found to have been an active participant in this unfortunate incident.”
You would expect nothing less than that. The statement continued, “We are disappointed at what transpired after the game.”
“We pride ourselves on exhibiting good sportsmanship, and have made that a clear expectation of our student-athletes and coaches. Anyone who failed to meet those expectations Friday night will be addressed accordingly.”
It’s almost as if those responses are already written out and you just have to plug in things like what day the “unfortunate incident” took place on.
There were a lot of regional implications on the line during this game and no reports of injuries at the time. Hopefully this doesn’t affect the Syrupmakers negatively going forward.
