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The Morgan County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a fight at the junior varsity basketball game between Berkeley Springs and Keyser at Berkeley Springs High School on Friday, February 10.

A video of the game showed a student hitting a reserve deputy, according to police.

Assistant School Superintendent Joan Willard said she wasn’t
at the game, but that the video shows a skirmish between two students.

She thought it appeared the officer was almost
pushed aside and that he fell to the ground.

He was on the periphery and “the way he got pushed, he just went flying,” Willard said. A deputy is always on duty at games.

The rest of the team players — Berkeley Springs High School and Keyser High School — remained on the bench when the fight broke out, she said. When the deputy went to the floor, a lot of people in the crowd came down to help.

There were also some issues with parents at the game, Willard said.
Willard couldn’t release names or specific disciplinary consequences that stemmed from the incident for students or parents.

The West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission, the standards board for high school sports, specifies that it’s mandatory that students sit out for at least two games for fighting, she said.

Schools can increase those disciplinary consequences, depending on
the investigation of the incident.

Parents and athletes both sign a contract about how they are going to behave during a game. Parents pledge to be a good fan and support the kids and show positive behavior.

The Indian Athlete pledge focuses on sportsmanship and code of conduct.

“We have rules for expectations of athletes and spectators,” Willard said.

Willard couldn’t say what caused the fight, but had heard that frustration and emotions were running high at the game. Officials met afterwards to determine whether to go ahead with the varsity game that was scheduled to follow.

Willard said they decided to proceed with the varsity game, which went off without a hitch.