Violent behavior among players and spectators has increased at Greater Cincinnati high school basketball games this season.

        With the Ohio boys basketball tournaments under way, preliminary reports indicate a growing number of disciplinary problems and violence.

        “We've been hearing about a lot of incidents this year,” said Henry Zaborniak, co-commissioner of the Ohio High School Athletic Association, which tracks player and coach ejections. “There seems to be more incidents of aggressive play.”

        Mr. Zaborniak said ejections are ahead of last year's pace, which statewide saw 113 high school players and 49 coaches kicked out of games by referees for poor sportsmanship or violence.

        Within the past month, Cincinnati-area incidents have included a fight that broke out between West Carrollton and Monroe players during a post-game handshake, a late-game brawl that brought fans swarming onto the court in a Dixie-Carlisle game and post-game clashes between Sycamore and Moeller high school fans that sent two Moeller youths to the hospital.

        The Feb. 2 game was won by Moeller, 54-46, while extra security guards and Hamilton County sheriff's deputies patroled the crowds inside and out on Moeller's campus.

        A short time later, in the parking lot of the nearby Skyline Chili on Montgomery Road, 18-year-old Moeller senior Kevin Buckley was beaten by several people, who left him with a concussion and facial bruises, according to a sheriff's report. A second, unidentified Moeller student suffered facial injuries, deputies said.

        A Sycamore student told police he was punched and that approximately 80 to 100 students from both schools had gathered in Skyline's parking lot for the fight.

        The restaurant is a popular post-game hangout for students of both schools.

        The attack, and later vandalism of the exterior of a Moeller student's home, brought out police from Montgomery and Blue Ash to investigate. The incidents have shaken many in Symmes Township and there's talk of suspending the 40-year basketball rivalry.

        “We've discussed that,” said Jim Stoll, Sycamore's athletic director. “(The incidents) didn't occur at the game ... so it was an off-site thing. If things are happening after the game, we'd certainly consider” not playing, he said.

        Said Moeller assistant principal and basketball coach Carl Kremer: “I've been here for 15 years and I believe it was an isolated incident.”

        Sycamore High School parent Nancy Sage agreed. “I truly believe it's a minority of students and a minority of parents. We have a good rapport with Moeller. This is just one sad, sad incident.”

        In Monroe, the ritual post-game handshake between players erupted after West Carrollton won a tense game. Armed officers — including veteran Monroe Police Chief Ernest Howard — dashed onto the court to restore calm.

        The 40-year police veteran found himself in the middle of the melee with a West Carrollton fan, Michael D. Wright, 19, coming at him fist cocked. Chief Howard pulled him down and arrested him on top of the jump-ball circle. Mr. Wright was found guilty of disorderly conduct and trespassing and fined $100.

        Fan violence and profanity this season has prompted Chief Howard to recommend to Monroe school officials that the stands behind the home team be restricted next year to Monroe fans.

        “It was unnerving seeing people act like that over a basketball game,” the chief said.

        Also, a player fight in the final seconds at Carlisle High, in Warren County, in a game with Dixie High of New Lebanon, brought spectators out of the stands. The fans were thrown out of the gym by police and double technical fouls were issued to both teams.

        There is plenty of blame to go around for such incidents, said Mr. Zaborniak, who oversees high school referees for the OHSAA and is himself a Big Ten football referee.

        In addition to unruly fans, undisciplined players, grandstanding coaches and lax referees, he cites the spread of TV sports shows that glorify the worst behaviors of college and NBA players.

        “Our threshold for this stuff continues to go up and the crowds are more boisterous and threatening. It's almost like touching a match to black powder,” he said.

        Few know the explosive power of such on-court violence better than former Ohio State University basketball player Dave Merchant, Lebanon High School boys basketball coach for 25 years.

        Mr. Merchant was among the OSU players attacked by University of Minnesota players in the closing moments of a key 1971 Big Ten game in Minneapolis. The bench-clearing attack on the Buckeyes horrified the nation and, said Mr. Merchant, provided a snapshot of the future ugliness that more frequently infects some high school games.

        “That was the beginning of the era that we are in now. We're all a reflection of society. I don't think the respect kids and adults have for one another is as high, and society puts up with it,” he said.

        But once on the court, he holds coaches responsible for maintaining sportsmanship and fair play, saying, “We can't pass the buck. ... They are our teams and we control how they act.”

        Lebanon High School Athletic Director David Brausch blames parents “who are ruining it for the kids” by hurling profanity and even threats at opposing players and fans.

        “The general decline of the family is behind a lot of this,” he said.

        School administrators are taking security precautions. Two armed officers patrol each Lebanon home game, and swift action is taken against parents who break the rules, Mr. Brausch said. He cited a junior-high mother who violently grabbed the arm of a basketball referee after a game last season. School officials immediately ejected her from the gym and she was banned from attending games for a year.

        “A lot of the kids out there playing are embarrassed by their parents when they do this,” he said.

        Enquirer reporter Tom Groeschen and contributor Sue Kiesewetter contributed.
       

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