FHSAA officials confirmed that 12 players from both Lakeland and Kathleen were suspended as a result of a fight that broke out at the beginning of the third quarter when the two teams met on Oct. 27.
Kathleen players sat out last week, while Lakeland players will miss Friday night’s home playoff game against New Port Richey Mitchell in the Class 4S, Region 2 quarterfinals.
“We’re putting it behind us,” Lakeland coach Marvin Frazier said. “We’ll be all right.”
Frazier said he could not make any further comments on the suspensions.
Principals from Lakeland and Kathleen could not be reached for comment.
Polk County athletic director Dan Talbot said most of the suspensions were for one week, although a couple of players received two weeks’ suspension. The punishments were lighter than they could have been, he said because the schools meted out their own punishments first.
“That’s what the FHSAA wants schools to do,” Talbot said.
The FHSAA, Talbot said, works with schools and will hand out lighter punishments if officials are satisfied with a school’s response. Because of privacy laws, Talbot could not disclose what the punishments were.
“It was an unfortunate situation,” Talbot said. “We hope our student-athletes learn from this.”
The fight broke early in the third quarter following a run play. On video of the play, a Lakeland offensive lineman can be seen blocking a Kathleen defender and pushing him back behind the line of scrimmage as Elijah Bell ran for a 12-yard gain.
The Kathleen player gave an extra shove to the Lakeland lineman, who was on the ground, as the play ended. The Lakeland lineman, who was holding on to a Kathleen player’s leg, kept hold of the leg as he got up and pushed him to the ground, prompting the referee to throw a flag.
At that point, a Kathleen player can be seen running from about 10 yards away to shove the Lakeland lineman, and then more players got involved. The play was near the Kathleen sideline and video shows several Lakeland players running across the field to get involved.
A couple of players from each team can be seen throwing punches.
Lakeland was leading 37-0 at the time, and the game was ended. Frazier said after the game that had it been close, it likely would have continued. However, with the Dreadnaughts leading by 37 points, the game already had a running clock.