Hancock vs. Warren – The Augusta Chronicle reported yesterday that the Hancock County Grand Jury returned a no bill regarding the fight between Hancock Central and Warren County high school football players October 14th of last year. The Jury decided that “no indictment be returned against anyone”.
Ocmulgee District Attorney Fred Bright said that both Warren and Hancock football teams blame the other for throwing the first punch. Also, the Warren players could not identify the Hancock player that hit Warren head football coach David Daniel. However, Bright said the GBI report states a 17 year-old Hancock player did admit to hitting Daniel, twice in the face with his fist, but only after Daniel had twice hit the player in the chest and then in the face. Bright also said that the evidence makes it clear that Daniel was hit by a fist not a helmet, which corresponds to what the Hancock player said he did.
The GBI report states that Daniel told EMT personnel that he was accidently hit by one of his own players but Bright emphasized that one of the Hancock players admitted hitting Daniel.
Another facet of the fight that night was Warren’s contention that Hancock had locked them out of the dressing room. The GBI report repudiates this. According to the report the Warren team manager had the key in her possession the whole time.
Bright said that a week before some Warren County players attended a Hancock Central football game since Warren had a bye week. During that visit the Warren players went to the visitors’ locker room and taunted the Hancock players. The Warren players were escorted from the field. Bright did not say if the GBI report made any mention of assistant coach Marleau Blount’s cell phone texts to Warren County players in the week prior to the game. Blount was Warren County head football coach until he lost his job over questionable eligibility requirements of some of his players.
The Augusta paper says that Warren County School Superintendent Carole Jean Carey expects the results from a civil lawsuit to be quite different from the Hancock grand jury.
The news report would lead one to believe that Warren County is not as innocent as first believed. Further, it would appear that Daniel may have been pushing and shoving Hancock players. Perhaps his intentions were good, that is, he wanted to stop the fight. But considering the behavior of some of his team’s players the week before at a Hancock ballgame, Hancock’s response is not the big surprise as this writer first believed. No, I don’t condone fighting as a way of settling a score, as Hancock County Sheriff Tomlyn Primus said, “Anytime that a player is injured along with a coach, nobody wins.” Nevertheless, you don’t go kicking the dog and then whine when you get bitten.
No comments:
Post a Comment