Fans rushing onto field after upsets needs to stop

As I watched North Carolina State fans rush the court following Sunday’s upset of top-ranked… As I watched North Carolina State fans rush the court following Sunday’s upset of top-ranked Duke, I couldn’t help but think about Joe Kay. The 18-year-old Tucson High School basketball player has been on the minds of many sports fans over the past week.

On the night of Feb. 6, the home team Badgers finished off an impressive victory over Tucson Salpointe Catholic High, the defending Arizona class 5A Southern Region champs, with a dunk by the 6-foot-5 Kay. An estimated 200 overly jubilant fans stormed the court, jumping on the players and having fun. But somewhere during the celebration, Kay was tackled and suffered a fractured jaw and a torn carotid artery. The torn artery caused Kay to suffer a stroke, which left him paralyzed on the right side.

This kid had everything going for him, and now, if he’s lucky, he’ll be able to walk again someday.

Kay is a 4.0 student, a National Merit finalist, and the first-chair saxophone player for his band, not to mention the recent recipient of an athletic scholarship to play volleyball at Stanford. And instead of having a full-out party to celebrate his 18th birthday on Feb. 7, he spent it in surgery and a hospital bed. His birthday present was finding out that he had lost control over the right side of his body and maybe, just maybe, he’ll be able to regain those functions after months of grueling physical therapy.

If any good can come from this, it has to start at the top. Every high school and every college has to step up and put an end to this form of celebration. Sure, it was a freak accident. Sure, no one meant for this kid to get paralyzed. It wasn’t an act of malice or led by a bunch of drunken fans. These were his peers, his classmates, his friends. These were just a bunch of fans that wanted to join in the celebration. But it doesn’t mean we should ignore this and chalk it up to a once-in-a-lifetime accident.

Professional sports do a pretty good job of dealing with fans on the field of play. Baseball has had some problems with this as of late, starting with the attack of Royals first-base coach Tom Gamboa in September 2002, but stadiums have beefed up security. The Super Bowl had a small problem when the infamous streaker, Mark Roberts, jumped onto the field dressed as a referee and proceeded to yank off his clothes and run around the field until being clocked by a Patriots player. But mostly, professional sporting teams catch and thoroughly punish the few drunken idiots and risk-takers that try to step onto a field or court.

But high school and college sports are a different matter altogether. Rushing the court after a basketball game or the field after a football game is standard procedure now. What once was a celebration only for the greatest-of-great upsets has turned into a dangerous practice that everyone wants to partake in all the time and everyone thinks should be allowed.

Pitt was subjected to this practice last week after losing in double overtime to Seton Hall. Pirate fans rushed the court to celebrate a victory in a game where they were actually favored to win because, apparently, storming the court should occur every time you are favored to win. I guess that’s what Seton Hall fans were thinking. Either that or none of the students understand betting lines.

Last season at Syracuse, a Pitt player was punched by a fan that stormed the court after the Orangemen beat the Panthers. That was minor. Now a kid gets paralyzed by his own fans who rushed onto the court. That isn’t minor. This has to stop now. Every time this happens, someone needs to be punished, whether it be the school or the fans, until finally everyone gets the point. Kay’s story should be a lesson, not just another freak tragedy.

Raymond Newby is a staff writer for the Pitt News and thoroughly applauds Stanford’s decision to uphold Kay’s scholarship regardless of whether he can play again.