Maplewood's and Pearl-Cohn's girls basketball programs could face sanctions from the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association after an altercation in Tuesday's freshman game involving players and fans. Maplewood was already under a one-year restricted probation for a fight between the Lady Panthers' varsity players and Stratford fans on Feb. 12, 2010. Maplewood's athletics program is also on probation for two years.

"It's disappointing and pretty serious to us, and it will be dealt with," state association executive director Bernard Childress said. "We just cannot have these types of incidents. We're not happy about it." The Metro Nashville school system has ended the freshman season for Pearl-Cohn and Maplewood. "I think that sends a message that we're not going to tolerate it," said Ralph Thompson, who oversees discipline for Metro.

The fact that one fight involved Maplewood's varsity players and the other included freshmen won't lessen possible sanctions, Childress said. Maplewood and Stratford were fined $2,000 each for last year's incident and the girls varsity teams are banned from the postseason this year. Maplewood and Pearl-Cohn must deliver incident reports to the state association by noon today. Attempts to reach Maplewood principal Erika Williams and Pearl-Cohn principal Marva Blanchard-Woods were unsuccessful Thursday.

Childress said proper security was in place at Maplewood, unlike last year at Stratford when there weren't any security personnel on hand. "It's a great deal of concern to us," said Roosevelt Sanders, Metro's athletics coordinator. "There were some spectators at the game that were being real aggressive and heckling, as fans do. That was not addressed as it should have been."

The game was becoming more intense and there were some hard fouls in the moments before the altercation. Sanders said eight to 10 players from both teams were suspended up to five days apiece. No one was seriously injured. "Things were in place to try to keep it from getting to where it was," said Sanders, who received statements from parents, students, teachers and officials at both schools as part of his investigation. "It's just unfortunate that it did happen."

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