Superintendent Cancels Games For McClatchy, Kennedy After Brawl

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jonathan Raymond has ordered the McClatchy and Kennedy high school football teams to forfeit their games this weekend as a consequence for the fight between players Friday night.

"I believe this action is necessary to ensure that an incident of this sort is not repeated in Sacramento City Unified," Raymond said in a press release issued Monday. "This kind of behavior is against the tenets of good sportsmanship and will not be tolerated in our community. There is no excuse for what transpired. Both teams need to earn back the respect they lost on the field last weekend."

Coaches, athletic directors, principals and administrators met Monday morning to discuss the fight that ended the rare night game at Kennedy. McClatchy was leading 14-0 when the fight broke out after a tackle with five minutes to play and the game ended there. A video of the final five minutes was reviewed and all involved were given an opportunity to suggest appropriate consequences.

"I think it was the tackle, I think it was emotions, I think it was everything," said Kennedy coach Henry Lusk, who called the game after the fight.

Coaches, ADs and team captains will come together this week for a sportsmanship summit. In addition, the two teams will participate together in a community service event this weekend. It hasn't been decided yet what they'll be doing.

"It's an unfortunate ending to a great game and and a good rivalry between the two schools," McClatchy Principal Peter Lambert said.

Each school is also determining appropriate disciplinary actions for individual students involved, the district said.

"I never like to see this happen ," a Kennedy JV player, Aidan Flynn, told CBS13's Derek Shore. "I was actually super surprised it did happen. I was kind of disappointed."

Earlier Monday, principals of both schools notified faculty, students parents and staff of the forfeiture and other actions.

"This is an embarrassment for our community and we are all anxious to put it behind us," Raymond said. "The best outcome is that we use the incident as a teachable moment, and that these teams, schools and all of our students emerge as champions of good sportsmanship."

Kennedy's Lusk said his team would learn from the incident.

"It's a teachable moment, to teach how to use that energy and all that aggression on the field with their helmets and the shoulder pads instead of fists," he said.