TRR file photo The Eldred Central School. (Click for larger image)

Eldred and Manor cancel remaining basketball games

Recent post-game violence prompts move

By RICHARD A. ROSS and DAVID HULSE

ELDRED, NY — The sports rivalry between Eldred and Livingston Manor has always been fierce and now it has deteriorated into something else altogether.

Violence entered the picture at the schools’ January 21 basketball game. A post-game melee broke out at Eldred sending one Eldred girl to the hospital. Considering the situation too hot to handle, Eldred Central School (ECS) Superintendent Candace Mazur on Friday, January 31 decided to cancel the games between the two schools for the remainder of the season.

Livingston Manor Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Gray did not agree with the solution.

The schools “could and should play,” he said.

The schedule had called for the Eldred girls’ and boys’ teams to travel to Livingston Manor this week on February 6 and 7. Gray said he believed “the crowd could be controlled.”

His call to the state police about the possibility of crowd control seemed to question that assumption. Gray said that the police “felt as if the situation could be highly inflammatory and that they could not guarantee the safety of all spectators and participants.”

The schools have been intense rivals for decades and problems between students are not new. Both Mazur and Gray acknowledge problems with some of their own students and deem factions from both schools mutually responsible.

Mazur’s January 31 letter went out to all Eldred parents regarding the cancellation of the remaining games. She cited concern for the “health, safety and welfare of our students who compete, and parents and staff who attend these games.”

Mazur wrote that recent “friction” among players, students and spectators from both schools prompted “verbal and physical confrontations,” at the January 21 game. Mazur told parents that both districts are working with state police “to resolve issues at hand.”

How did it happen?

Threats were passed between an Eldred student and a member of the Livingston Manor boys’ team at a girls’ game in Eldred the previous Friday, January 17. The dispute may have stemmed from an association of that player with one of the girls from Eldred. According to another Livingston Manor student present, the Eldred boy came up to the Manor basketball player in a menacing manner. Words were passed to the effect of “We’ll settle this on Tuesday.”

Following the game on January 21, a number of Eldred fans rushed onto the court attempting to fight the same Manor basketball player. According to Manor teammates, that player was escorted from the court directly to the locker room and was not involved in the fight.

One ECS student, an apparent bystander, was treated and released from Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis after being pushed into a hallway trophy case. She alleges that the same Manor basketball player pushed her.

Manor players who have signed depositions stating that he was in the locker room at the time have refuted that allegation.

According to Mazur, there were no witnesses to the incident.

	TRR file photo The Livingston Manor Central School. (Click for larger image)

Previously during halftime, disputes flared up between several students. At the conclusion of the game, fighting broke out in the hall, the gym and later in the school parking lot.

Eldred girls’ coach Frank Kean was punched by an Eldred student during the fracas and has indicated that he intends to press charges against that student.

New York State Police, assisted by Sullivan County Sheriff’s deputies, were called to restore order.

Town of Highland constables have attended ECS basketball games to act as security in past years. They were not present on January 21. Chief Constable Robert Maas said constables in the past have worked at Friday games, but that the town has no staffing available for mid-week games.

An ECS student said racial epithets were involved on both sides and estimated that up to 40 people were involved in the parking lot disturbance.

Mazur denied those numbers, saying that only a handful of participants were involved in the outdoor fighting, while others looked on.

Both schools have taken disciplinary action and suspended students as a consequence for their involvement. Five were suspended at ECS. None of the players from either team was involved in the fighting incident.

Mazur told TRR that she blamed Internet chat-room taunting and goading for much of the problem.

“The kids can have something going before the game ever begins and we have no way of knowing about it.”

Underlying feelings of antagonism between some individuals from the two schools were evident during the football game held at Eldred this past fall. People from both communities were quick to attribute blame to the other with regard to alleged words and actions both during the game and later in the parking lot.

Friction was intensified by an article that appeared in The Times Herald Record that laid the blame for the problems on parents being out of control. That perception was strongly refuted by the Eldred community who denied the article’s portrayal of their community in what they called extremely inaccurate reporting of the events.

The sports angle

How the cancellations impact the basketball standings is another question.

“Eldred’s decision to cancel the games for the remainder of basketball season should constitute a forfeit,” Gray said.

That issue is still unresolved.

“The games cannot just be cancelled without one team or the other acceding to a forfeit,” said Orange County League representative Bob Chapman.

According to Chapman the league’s position was “first, to offer a neutral gym for the teams to play in or to have the games played without spectators.” In his recollection, this is the first time this problem has surfaced at the varsity level.

“Other schools in the section would not be happy with a forfeit which could affect sectional seeding by giving a team a win without having to play,” he said.

Cancellation of the games would allow for a “cooling off period” this week.

The question remains as to what can be done to mediate the issues between the two Sullivan County communities.

Joy Ann Savino, the director of the Ulster County division of the Dispute Resolution Center offered some possible strategies.

“We might suggest a town meeting in each town to allow people to talk about the problems and their future needs. Following that, we would meet with kids to get their point of view, perhaps even moving onto individual mediation. The final stage could involve a workshop attended by members of both communities to discuss alternatives to violence and joint-community planning.

“A problem of this magnitude did not surface overnight and will undoubtedly take some time to resolve,” Savino said.