Brawls Lead to Bans for Tennessee High School Teams

On October 23, two Tennessee high school football teams were banned from postseason play for three years following an on-field brawl. On Friday, another pair of Tennessee teams had an altercation and were handed the same sentence.

This past Thursday, the Daniel Boone and David Crocket high school football teams feuded at midfield following a 23-16 Boone victory.

According to the Knoxville News-Sentinel, more than 20 people took part in the fight, which was broken up by coaches and school administrators.

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association has subsequently banned both teams from post season play for three years.

“On behalf of Crockett athletics, we want to apologize to our community, our fans as well as the other communities who witnessed it,” Josh Kite, athletic director at David Crockett said. “Emotions were running high, but that’s no excuse. We are doing everything in our power that nothing else like this ever happens again in football or any other sport.”

Daniel Boone's athletic director, Danny Good, offered a similar statement in response to the incident: “We’re going to put some procedures in place that something like what happened last night never happens again,” Good said. “It’s not acceptable.”

For Crockett, the ban eliminates the possibility of back-to-back post season berths; for Boone, the ban comes just one year after they were awarded Tennessee's Region 1 sportsmanship award.

Strikingly, the Crocket-Boone brawl occurred just one week after two other Tennessee high school football teams were barred by the TSSAA for fighting.

Hillcrest and Mitchell high schools were banned from post season play for three years — and fined $4,750 each — for participating in a brawl that left the athletic director at Mitchell High School with a face full of pepper spray.

Two players from each school were suspended for fighting, and one from Hillcrest was suspended for swinging his helmet.

Hillcrest and Mitchell finished first and second in Tennessee's District 16-A.

All four schools will appeal at the next TSSAA board of control meeting, which is on Nov. 13.