Track team’s tussle further damages SU’s reputation

On Sunday, Southern University men’s track members issued the school its second black eye in recent months with its latest fiasco at the Southwestern Athletic Conference Track Championship hosted at LSU’s Carl Maddox Field House.
As if the marching band’s torture-style hazing that brought lots of negative media attention from The DIGEST, The Advocate and local television stations weren’t enough?
This time, the university was victim of a fight which broke out in the stands between members of SU and Jackson State men’s track teams, for reasons still unknown, after the 60-meter hurdles.
At the time of the melee SU and JSU were in second and third place.
However, both teams were disqualified and according to SWAC Commissioner Duer Sharp all finishes were deleted from the final tally as lower finishing school were moved up and point totals recalculated.
“I am extremely disappointed by today’s incident,” said Sharp in a statement released Sunday on swac.org. “Championship events are to celebrate and reward the achievements of our student athletes. Today, the actions of those involved in the altercation have not exemplified that competitive spirit of the Southwestern Athletic Conference and its member institutions.”
No kidding.
Lost in the carnage were Leon Citizen’s win in the 400, which would have been a SWAC record and Patrick Jones’ 60-meter hurdles win.
Levarius Giles of JSU also had his 60-meter dash win deleted.
SU’s women finished fourth with 78 points.
“First let me say that the incident was very unfortunate and embarrassing to our university, and that type of behavior is not condoned nor will it be tolerated,” said SU sports information director Kevin Manns in a statement issued by the university.
“The entire incident is being investigated by both Southern and Jackson State, as well as the Southwestern Athletic Conference. We will withhold any comments until the full investigation is complete.”
According to SU officials, a ruling could be rendered today.
In hindsight, the actions of the athletes who participated in the fight were plain stupid. The aftermath of their carelessness cost the university another PR disaster, and victories for two of their teammates.
Regardless of what happened in the moments leading up to the fight, this situation should have never escalated to punches being thrown.
Since when did track become a contact sport?
And when did SU students begin to crave negative attention?
Those answers are still “unknown” like that of what transpired in the stands, but those individuals certainly got their share of negative publicity.
Footage of the scuffle recorded live by WAFB’s Jacques Doucet is on WAFB-TVs website as a featured sports video and reached over 700 views on YouTube as of Wednesday.
“This behavior is unacceptable and we will investigate completely,” Sharp said.
In a week where there is some much going on at SU, this “unacceptable behavior” has overshadowed the fact that Lee-Hines Field is still without an outfield fence six months after Hurricane Gustav, and that the SU baseball team had to swap dates with Southeastern Louisiana in playing its home opener in Hammond on Wednesday.
It also overshadows the fact SU is considering cutting women’s golf and men’s tennis in an attempt to tighten its belt due to the states drastic budget cuts.
Thankfully this situation isn’t going over easy in the SU athletic department.
It won’t be overshadowed by anything there.