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Hirschi awarded win, 12 players suspended following on-field altercation

Wed, 10/12/2022 - 2:27 pm

UPDATE 4:54 p.m. Oct. 12 - Graham ISD Superintendent Sonny Cruse has confirmed that Hirschi's win over Graham, which was awarded by the District 3-4A Executive Committee Wednesday afternoon, is now under review pending an investigation into whether Hirschi used an ineligible player during Friday's game.

The Hirschi Huskies were awarded the win in last Friday’s district opener, with no points awarded in the points differential, following a District 3-4A Executive Committee meeting held earlier today. Six Graham Steers and six Hirschi Huskies football players will serve a suspension of at least one-half of a game as a result of the fight during the third quarter of last Friday’s game.

The DEC, made up of athletic directors and superintendents from district-affiliated schools, including Midland Greenwood, Snyder and Sweetwater, required Graham ISD Superintendent Sonny Cruse and Wichita Falls ISD to submit corrective action plans to the DEC for approval and submission to UIL. Cruse said GISD’s plan has been submitted and will be released to the public following UIL’s approval.

Cruse said six Graham players and five players from Hirschi were suspended by UIL, with officials from Hirschi having suspended a sixth player. The superintendent said that three Graham players would miss more than the minimum one-half game, but declined to identify players or the exact lengths of suspensions.

Cruse said the district is still working to identify the IP address of the user who posted a comment on Dave Campbell’s Texas Football mobile app prior to Friday’s game. The racially charged comment was posted by an account appearing to be a Graham Steers’ fan.

“I would have to get some assistance from someone that has the right technology and if that's even possible, to use that IP address to track down where it's from,” Cruse said. “I know there's a process (...) that will determine where it came from. (...) If indeed it turned out to be somebody from Graham, then what I would be willing to do would suspend them from attending Graham activities moving forward.”

An IP address is a numeric address given to a computer connected to the internet.

Cruse said he is also in the process of consulting with the district’s attorney to see if there was any possible legal recourse if the author of the comment is found.

Initially, the teams were hoping to finish the game Saturday afternoon in an empty stadium. It was determined early Sunday morning, following ejections from game officials, that not enough players were eligible to play and the game would not be finished for safety reasons.

The Steers were trailing 24-14 near the end of the third quarter when the fight broke out. Steers’ defensive back Peyton Kinman intercepted a pass from Huskies' quarterback Jimmell McFalls to Huskies’ wide receiver Jamarion Carroll near the Huskies’ end zone. Following the play, Kinman was picked up from behind and was aggressively tackled by Carroll causing a fight to break out on the field, including players from both benches running to the field.

“It just got crazy, we had told our kids all week, we talked about not retaliating and (staying) disciplined,” Steers head coach Kenny Davidson said following the game’s suspension. “There was a lot of flags. (...) Kinman intercepted a pass and then they picked him up and threw him down on his head, you know, that’s just unnecessary. (...) I don’t know, I’ll have to watch the film, we’ll have it on film. I haven’t really just figured it out in my mind just what happened.”

Graham is scheduled to play Friday, Oct. 14 at Snyder with a 7 p.m. kickoff. Following Friday’s game, the Steers are scheduled to host Sweetwater at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21. Hirschi has an open week Friday and will host Snyder on Friday, Oct. 21.

For the original story, read Fight breaks out during Graham, Hirschi football game.