Cast your mind back to last year’s Boys Basketball season. What do you remember? For those here at Carmel, you may think “Carmel’s Double Overtime Win Against Fishers” or it’s loss in the Regional Championship to the eventual state champion Homestead. However, a few may remember the Griffith-Hammond fight, where the boys basketball game between Griffith and Hammond was called a double forfeit after an on-court brawl happened. Both team’s seasons were canceled (at least, until a court issued a temporary restraining order allowing the teams to play the postseason) and both programs were placed on probation.

Now fast forward to Saturday, January 16. According to reports, a massive brawl happened in the fourth quarter of a girls basketball game between Pike and Ben Davis, both of whom Carmel has yet to face. Oddly enough, not only was that game also called a double forfeit, but both Pike’s and Ben Davis’ girls hoops teams had to cancel the remainder of their season, including Pike’s game against the Lady Greyhounds. Both programs were also placed on probation for the 2016-17 season, and coaches and players have to complete various online courses before coaching or competing next season.

Doesn’t the Pike-Ben Davis game look oddly similar to last year’s Griffith-Hammond game?

So, why did this happen? Well, the Indystar interviewed IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox, and he said that after watching the video from the game, apparently it was already an emotionally charged atmosphere. Referees tried to regain control of the game by calling three technical fouls and 2 double fouls, and both coaches also called multiple timeouts to try and calm the players.

Cox said ‘The coaches did all they could, and the referees did all they could, so it was literally falling to the players to calm themselves, and they did not.”

What Mr. Cox unfortunately failed to see is just how much the two schools dislike each other. Ever since Terre Haute North and South moved out of the MIC, and Pike and Lawrence Central joined the conference, the rivalries have shifted. Pike and Ben Davis have such an emotionally charged rivalry against one another, getting between the two of them is like trying to get between a mama bear and her cub.

And sadly, all of this emotionally charged atmosphere boiled over.

I interviewed senior Celene Funke during lunch on Tuesday, and she said her head coach sat down with the team and told them what to do if a similar situation breaks out at one of their games.

“Basically, if you’re on the bench, you stay on the bench, if you’re on the court, get any players out of the fight and to the bench.”

That is a sound plan.

While some players tried to play peacekeeper and some tried to stay out of the fight (especially the Pike senior who calmly retreated to the bench), the fact remains: Brawling during a game is unacceptable and does not align with any school philosophy at this school, and for Pete’s sake, I hope that brawls don’t align with any school philosophy at Ben Davis and Pike.

The IHSAA made the right move here. Whether or not everyone learns from this…only time will tell.