CIAA Football Commissioner Isn't Afraid To Bring Down Consequences For Physical Harassment
The Winston Salem State University Rams received a berth into next weekend’s NCAA Division II football playoffs, where they will host Slippery Rock. The Rams, who reached the Division II championship game last season, are one of 24 teams to have a shot to advance to this year’s title match in Florence, Alabama in mid-December. But you really had to troll through your favorite search engine this weekend to find that news about Winston Salem State.
Instead, the story about the Rams was about the game they didn’t play and the reason why.
The Rams were scheduled to play in their third straight Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship game, this time in a home contest against Virginia State. For the CIAA, a collection of historically black colleges and universities, this weekend’s festivities, which included the league volleyball championships, was to be a showcase event, second only in stature to the men’s basketball tournament in the spring. The conference football banquet, held on the Winston Salem campus, was to be a chance for the best players in the league to be honored for their accomplishments. And Rams quarterback Rudy Johnson, a first team all-conference selection, was supposed to be one of the stars of the banquet.
Instead, the night went completely sideways, and the CIAA got attention it didn’t want.
During the banquet, Johnson left the hall to go to the restroom. He was followed there by five players from Virginia State, and what happened next was a shock to everyone. According to campus police, the five Virginia State players beat up Johnson, sending him to a local hospital. He was treated and later released, but suffered a head laceration and a swollen eye. Police later issued an arrest warrant for Lamont Britt, a sophomore running back from Virginia State, charging him with misdemeanor assault inflicting serious injury. Britt was held and released over the weekend on a $7,500 bond and will face charges in a local court next month. The CIAAcancelled the next day’s championship game. Some entities would have left it to the school to issue further punishment that might have included a slap on the wrist to Britt and his teammates.
But CIAA commissioner Jacquie Carpenter took the idea of holding people accountable to another level. Carpenter and league officials took the extraordinary step of barring Virginia State, which like Winston Salem was 9-1 and ranked, from postseason consideration. In taking the Trojans out of the postseason, Carpenter and CIAA officials unilaterally took a potential second national title contender off the field.
In so doing, Carpenter sent a powerful message - that bullying, harassment, and violence won't be tolerated. It's one that far too few administrators, coaches and parents are willing to send these days.