A now-former Iowa assistant high school football coach turned himself in to authorities this week after reportedly telling an official he was going to "kill him" over a missed call.
According to KCRG, 44-year-old Jason Storm, the former Lincoln (Iowa) High School football assistant, is facing harassment charges after screaming at an official who missed a helmet-to-helmet hit on the Lincoln quarterback. The quarterback is also Storm’s son.
Court documents say that Storm had to be restrained by other members of the coaching staff before being led out of the stadium.
“This is just a small snippet of what we’re seeing at the high school level,” Scott Kriegel, athletic director at Center Point-Urbana (Iowa) High School told KCRG, remarking on the incident. “It’s all over, and it isn’t going away.”
Kriegel, who is also an official, told KCRG that he believed the referee involved in the incident missed the call. The Des Moines School District reportedly agreed, saying that the referee should have blown the whistle.
Inappropriate behavior is at epidemic levels in high school sports, particularly football in basketball, not just in Iowa but around the country. Kriegel told KCRG that Center Point-Urbana tries to pre-empt situations of poor sportsmanship. At home games, the band will sometimes play the visiting team’s fight song, and Kriegel himself will visit with fans from the opposing school.
“Making announcements about sportsmanship and how people should act is a growing trend at gymnasiums, schools and stadiums,” he said.
Does your high school have a game plan for handling fan behavior? Let us know what strategies you’ve used and whether you’ve found them to be effective in the comments.
