Earlier this month an altercation broke out between two football teams in the 5A central during the post game handshake line. Thirty five players were suspended from the teams, 12 from Mills and 23 players from Pine Bluff, including an athlete who had to have immediate medical attention. This display of poor sportsmanship and with the best interest of team safety, the Arkansas Athletic Association has put into place new safety measures during handshake lines. This new protocol now requires admin to accompany teams in order to hold the peace between feuding teams.
“Our goal is to have a plan in place for post game handshakes,” said Athletic Director and former head football coach, Chris wood. “Admin in the area of handshake, teams stay on one side of each other, and only teams are allowed to be on the field during the handshake.”
According to Wood and other student athletes, games can get extremely emotional, especially towards the end of the game.
“At the end of the Springdale football game, a player from Springdale said some disrespectful things about my family,” said senior linebacker Connor Hamby. “ I was really angry so I started saying things back and it escalated from there.”
Hamby acknowledges that the words exchanged were an example of bad sportsmanship on both sides of the argument. However, Hamby is not the only athlete from Har-Ber who has experienced an emotional outburst after the games. Junior Hayden Wood is all too familiar with these scuffles.
“Everyone’s blood is boiling after the games,” said Wood.
Wood is a starting wide receiver as well as a starting guard for the basketball team. During last year’s basketball season, Wood was involved in a heated argument in the handshake line versus Fayetteville.
“They came into our gym at home and beat us,” said Wood. “They were talking crap and I wasn’t going to take that so I said some things back and it got way out of hand.”
Wood agrees that the argument should not have gone as far as it did, and believes that the protocols will improve sportsmanship and keep further incidents from occurring. According to Hamby, students need to also start being respectful in order for this protocol to work.
“I understand why the AAA would want to put these protocols in place but I think that highschoolers need the freedom to be mature and respectful,” said Hamby.