At this point, what more can be said?
For the third year in a row, we start off a high school football season dodging bullets near a football stadium.
Right off the bat, some may say that statement is hyperbole — an exaggeration. I say, no. Not when you’re in an open-air place, and you can hear the shots but have no clue where they’re coming from.
And, as it has often been said, stray bullets have no name.
Friday night, I went to a high school football game at Laney High School, and ended up making sure that my photographer and I left the stadium and got home in one piece.
Apparently, the shots fired occurred on the grounds of an apartment complex that’s near Laney High School’s football stadium. The shots didn’t occur directly on Laney’s property.
But for this sports writer, it was close enough — far too close.
As I sat in the press box covering the action of the Westside at Laney high school football game — the first of the season for each team — I was gearing up to chronicle what I figured would be a dramatic fourth quarter.
Westside took a 7-0 lead in the first half. Laney opened the third quarter with an impressive touchdown drive of its own, but it missed the extra point, keeping the Wildcats behind on the scoreboard by one.
As the third quarter was winding down to under a minute, I was getting my storylines together for either a narrow Westside win or a come-from-behind victory for a young Laney squad.
I never got the chance to write either of those stories. Instead, with 52.8 seconds left on the clock, an abrupt movement of fans toward the stadium exits began. The football players and coaches dropped face down on the turf. I caught a glimpse of my photographer Ryan Bacheller trying to snag a couple of photos but also running for cover.
It was then that, though I didn’t hear the first round of gunfire, I thought I knew what was happening. A few moments later, I stepped outside of the Laney press box and looked over the balcony onto the parking lot.
That’s when I actually heard the second round of shots, and quickly ducked back into the press box where we were locked in until Richmond County sheriff deputies gave the all-clear.
I asked a couple of Laney coaches who were videoing the game on the press box roof. They said they saw a car with all four windows down and its occupants shooting in the air. And that’s when I knew, without a doubt, exactly what was happening.
The same thing that happened when Thomson came to Laney a couple of years back.
The same thing that caused Josey’s football team to shift from playing its 2023 season opener at home to having to make a trip to Savannah.
It’s a similar thing to what happened, also this past Friday night in Savannah, when the Calvary Day-Beach High game was called off at halftime due to an altercation.
It’s primarily kids and young people not knowing how to act, not caring to know how to act, in these public spaces. Not caring enough about the consequences of their actions to consider changing their ways.
And I hate it, because every time one of these things happens, I feel like it leaves a smudge on the community as a whole. I feel like it gives the football playing kids a bad name.
After finding out we were all safe and accounted for, I jokingly said to my photographer, “Not sure how many more of these games I’m gonna cover.” But the truth is, that’s not fair to say.
In a shooting incident that didn’t produce any injuries — or any arrests, as far as we know — there were still plenty of victims.
About 100 of them to be exact.
I’m talking about the high school athletes who got cheated out of finishing a competitive game. They got cheated out of one more quarter of film that could’ve added to their highlight reels for college.
Because the game was canceled and won’t be finished, it will go down as a win for Westside and a loss for Laney. It’s a non-region game, so the postseason stakes are minimal. But it cost Laney the chance to have an opportunity to come back and earn a confidence boosting victory.
The coaches were cheated as well. Instead of concentrating fully on follow-up film sessions and helping players improve from Week 1 to Week 2 of the season, they’ve gotta spend some time helping their athletes deal with the frustration of this now seemingly becoming an annual occurrence.
When is enough, enough? And what can really be done?
I must underscore that this is not just an Augusta issue.
I mentioned the situation in Savannah from Friday. But if you do a simple Google search, you’ll find about a half dozen different occurrences in 2023 where high school football games were played without fans due to various kinds of threats and concerns over non-gridiron confrontations.
One football game that got the no-fans treatment was a playoff game in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area.
Playoffs!
That’s the time when you want the fan support the most. But, unfortunately, you’ve gotta want player and fan safety more.
Now, let’s not pretend that this is a new, never-before-seen phenomenon. I remember seeing fights at high school sports games when I was in high school some 25 years ago. But it feels like it’s becoming more and more frequent and more and more violent.
Social media doesn’t help.
Last year during basketball season, I saw a skirmish breakout in the parking lot after a game. Instead of trying to break up the fracas, students — and sadly, even a few adults — ran over to the action, cell phones in hand with camera apps on, ready to record instead of diffuse.
I want to believe most parents aren’t like this. I want to believe most parents are doing everything they can to keep a handle on their young ones and to keep them out of stuff like this.
But I also know that once a person reaches the age of accountability and the ability to make his or her own choices, there’s only so much you can do.
I’d hate to see it, but I absolutely believe the day is approaching when we’ll start seeing more high school sports games being closed to audiences. And that would be a sad day, indeed.
Few things are more adrenaline inducing than a good, energetic high school sports atmosphere.
But if we can’t find some solutions quick, fast and in a hurry, we may be seeing a seismic shift in how high school sports are played, all in the name of making sure no one ever has the testimony of being gunned down while watching high school kids play football.
And that would be an absolute shame.
Gabriel Stovall is the sports editor for The Augusta Press. He can be reached at Gabriel@theaugustapress.com.
