High School Basketball Game almost turns into Hockey Game and in the process becomes an ‘Unsafe Environment’, as Wheatmore forfeits game to WS Parkland:Randolph County Schools Superintendent Stephen Gainey apologizes to WS Parkland HS and Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools

CLICK HERE to see the video from the Saturday altercation with Wheatmore High School and WS Parkland HS, on Senior Night, at Winston-Salem Parkland High School….Bath Fitters commercial prior to the video and just scroll down on this post and click on the video…

from staff reports at the Asheboro Courier Newspaper and www.courier-tribune.com

WINSTON-SALEM – Citing “an unsafe environment,” Wheatmore High School varsity boys associate head coach Brandon Thalasinos took his team off the floor in the second quarter of Saturday night’s non-league game at Parkland High School, resulting in what is now being called a forfeit loss.

Thalasinos, who was acting as the Warriors’ head coach because David Spell could not attend the game due to a prior commitment, said he was acting in the best interest and for the safety of his players when he called the game off at the 7:17 mark of the second period.

According to Thalasinos, WHS’ Austin Biggs committed a common foul early in the second quarter. The player who Biggs fouled grabbed Biggs by the throat and another player punched him in the face. Thalasinos went on the floor to grab Biggs and pull him to his bench while Pete Kilcullen, who was acting as the assistant coach for the game, helped keep the other Warriors players on the bench.

While the referees discussed the situation, Thalasinos said the crowd began getting verbally abusive toward the Wheatmore players and coaches. When Thalasinos and the Parkland head coach went to the scorer’s table to hear the refs’ decision, Thalasinos said the Parkland coach cussed at him, telling him that “I need to get my (expletive) team under control.”

CLICK HERE to read more on this situation/altercation……

from the Winston-Salem Journal and Patrick Fertlise we read from Randolph County Schools Superintendent Stephen Gainey:
“As superintendent of the Randolph County School System, I would like to apologize to the students, staff members, parents, and community members of Parkland High School and the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System for any negative actions displayed by students or staff members from Wheatmore High School during, or after, the varsity boys basketball game on 2/9/19 on the campus of Parkland High School,” the statement read. “I am confident that Parkland High School is a safe environment in all respects.”

More from Patrick Fertilse at the WS Journal:
www.journalnow.com….
**********On Monday, WS Parkland Coach Travis Holcomb-Faye of Parkland and athletics director Linwood Jerald disputed Wheatmore Coach Brandon Thalasinos’ account in the Asheboro Courier-Tribune. Video posted Sunday on social media, which shows the fight between the players, also appears to cast doubt on the story.

“I would say that report was totally inaccurate,” Holcomb-Faye said. “It painted our cheerleaders and our fans and our players and our coaches in such a dark, negative light.

“The past few days, I’ve just been so sick about it.”

Wheatmore coach Brandon Thalasinos also said he and the team(Wheatmore) took verbal abuse while heading to the bus and that he feared for their safety. A school resource officer escorted them out.

“That’s a lie. That’s a blatant lie,” Parkland AD Linwood Jerald said. “Their players and cheerleaders got on the bus, and they left. But nobody said anything to them. (The escort) was all just done as a precaution — it’s just that simple.”

CLICK HERE for the Patrick Ferlise post from the WS Journal…..

6 thoughts on “High School Basketball Game almost turns into Hockey Game and in the process becomes an ‘Unsafe Environment’, as Wheatmore forfeits game to WS Parkland:Randolph County Schools Superintendent Stephen Gainey apologizes to WS Parkland HS and Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools

  1. You really need to watch the video of this “Unsafe Environment” and see which kid(WHS) was throwing the punches. Reading some of the post and Facebook comments from WHS, said this was a one side affair. if you know the history of Wheatmore, everything is always over dramatized to the upmost. Now, did Parkland folks come on the courts, yes, but to say everyone( the Coach, the SRO, the Score Keeper and the Fans) cursed them out is a little unbelievable.

  2. The thing that would give strong credibility to the Wheatmore side of the argument is the fact that their coach Brandon Thalasinos was an officer of the law, with the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department and he should have a good feel for the Unsafe Environment should be like….

    You have a former sheriff coaching a basketball team and he ought to be able to run the show and keep the show on the road, “on the road”….

    But like you say, there are two sides for every story and I would like to hear from more people that were at the game and if you can, send us a few of those Facebook comments in here to the comment box, I would like to see what both sides are saying…

    I sort of feel bad for the regular Wheatmore head coach, he chose a bad night to have to miss the basketball game, and sort of seems a just little bit out of kelter to me anyway…This sort of seems like an unlikely non-conference matchup, but I don’t know if there has been any previous history at all, between these two teams…

    It may sound a but selfish, but I am just glad we didn’t see Guilford County get caught up in something like this on the weekend, or any day of the week, for that matter…

    Let’s do work to learn more about the WHOLE situation, but here is what the Wheatmore coach was saying about the game, as it got out of control…And if anyone was there, how were the officials handling the situation???

    Again, here is the Wheatmore coach:

    Thalasinos, who spent nearly 10 years as a deputy for the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department, said he knew things were getting out of hand. Then, Thalasinos said about 15 fans actually came out of the stands and on to the floor and multiple officers went to the WHS bench to keep the players safe.

    “It was very clear very fast we were not in the middle of a basketball game,” Thalasinos said. (As far as an unsafe environment) it was a 10 on a scale of one to 10. I felt like I had to do what I did for the safety of our kids. Their coaching staff was verbally abusive instead of trying to diffuse the situation.”

  3. An apology came in from the Randolph County Schools on Monday…

    Superintendent Stephen Gainey:

    “As superintendent of the Randolph County School System, I would like to apologize to the students, staff members, parents, and community members of Parkland High School and the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System for any negative actions displayed by students or staff members from Wheatmore High School during, or after, the varsity boys basketball game on 2/9/19 on the campus of Parkland High School,” the statement read. “I am confident that Parkland High School is a safe environment in all respects.”

  4. Parkland has had a few altercations this year and not just with Wheatmore and Smith. Looks like there coach and AD don’t have very much control.

  5. So a former Guilford County Sheriff officer was coaching the team, casts blatant lies, twists the truth, and then submits comments saying that it was an “unsafe environment” when his players were the instigators of a fight (pushing a player after the whistle and pushing another player who was running up)…. Is this who we want coaching/leading our children, much less protecting our society?

  6. It has been sort of a crazy year….One of Tabor’s kids came after a Smith kid the other night and now the Tabor kid is supposed to be sitting out four games and that could effect the Dudley-Tabor boys game tonight, at Dudley….
    Southwest Guilford at Tabor on Friday night….

Comments are closed.