It’s never a surprise when high school sports rivalry games get out of hand. It happens more often than we’d ever like to see.
But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a high school basketball team openly invite confrontation during an away game quite like the postgame celebration from Little Rock Hall (Ark.).
The Warriors defeated rival Little Rock Parkview in the 5A-Central Conference championship on Tuesday, and following the win, the entire team reveled in the victory by mocking the Parkview team and fans. One player, Montavious Dismuke, had a broom, which showed how premeditated this all was, to celebrate Hall’s sweep of Parkview.
Matters got even more heated when Hall senior Kevon Cooper cut down the net at Parkview’s home court.
Luckily, a full-out brawl didn’t break out. At the very least, it wasn’t the kind of sportsmanship that you’d like to see from high school athletics.
Hall head coach Jon Coleman, who too was using the broom, defended the postgame antics, via arkansasonline.com:
“It wasn’t a matter of trying to show anybody up. It was a matter of our kids working hard to clinch a conference championship,” Coleman said. “In the past, people have celebrated on other people’s courts. But our kids deserve this.”
Parkview coach Al Flanigan, though, called the behavior petty.
