High school rivalry games are always fun to watch as unexpected things happen all the time in these games. The additional pressure of the game being a conference championship makes the game even more exciting. Little Rock, Arkansas would know all about that as a pair of Little Rock high schools almost got into a brawl after the conference championship game.
Little Rock Hall and Little Rock Parkview were meeting in the 5A-Central Conference championship game with Parkview hosting the game. Hall knocked off rival Parkview to secure the conference championship, but it’s the events after the game that fans will remember most.
One player on the Hall team brought a broom out onto the court and started sweeping the court, signifying Hall’s season sweep of rival Parkview.
While the broom was used to disrespect Parkview, it was not the incident that almost started a brawl. A senior on the Hall team wanted to cut down one of the nets at Parkview, a ritual done by teams in college basketball after winning major tournaments. The Parkview players took offense to their rivals cutting down the nets in their own gym.
It's what happens in the 501 … it's LRHall vs. LRParkview … it's a rivalry game … and it got hot AFTER the final horn … pic.twitter.com/CvpLF9yG9L
— Kevin McPherson (@ARHoopScoop) February 20, 2019
The teams were separated before anything serious happened, potentially marring the conference championship game. Hall’s head coach Jon Coleman was seen after the game with a broom as he celebrated his team’s victory. Coleman defended his players for their celebrations after the game.
“It wasn’t a matter of trying to show anybody up. It was a matter of our working hard to clinch a conference championship,” Coleman said, via Arkansas Online. “In the past, people have celebrated on other people’s courts. But our kids deserve this.”
Parkview’s head coach Al Flanigan does not have the same beliefs of Coleman as he thought Hall’s postgame behavior was petty. The 2019 5A-Central Conference Championship game will be remembered for a long time in Little Rock as it spiced up a rivalry between two of the city’s better high school basketball teams.