CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The organization overseeing school sports in West Virginia is continuing to investigate a girls basketball fracas that has drawn unusual attention after comments by one of the coaches who is also the state’s governor.
“As you are aware, playing rules are very clear and have immediate consequences. Other rules violations take more time for a complete investigation,” stated Bernie Dolan, executive director of the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission, in response to questions posed by MetroNews.
He said the organization is continuing to gather information.
“The WVSSAC has investigated and believes there is still some factual information that we haven’t received. We have viewed numerous videos and the three official reports of the game. There may be additional reports sent soon by the security personnel.”
The chaos that unfolded during a fourth quarter timeout isn’t easy to sort through, although it has become more clear after the release of game video and surveillance video.
MetroNews was able to obtain each through a Freedom of Information Act request to Greenbrier East High School. Interviews and statements by those who were there also help piece together what happened.
One of those who was directly involved was Greenbrier East fan Steve Damon, who spoke with MetroNews by telephone this week.
Damon, whose daughter is a player for Greenbrier East, said the situation actually started developing during a prior matchup between the two rivals when he and Woodrow Wilson assistant coach Gene Nabors exchanged words.
“Me and him have a history from the last game,” Damon said.
That continued last week when the two squads met again at Greenbrier East. As Damon described it, the two continued to make eye contact and exchange heated words even though Damon was in the stands and Nabors was on the court.
Without audio, it’s hard to determine what role, if any, race played in what was said. Damon is biracial and Nabors is black.
Damon got so angry that he acknowledged giving Nabors the middle finger and the got up and said “keep playing with me, keep playing with me.”
Then, Damon said, he left his seat and walked to a State Police trooper to warn that Nabors should “stop or there’s going to be trouble in the parking lot.”
Nabors, in turn, left a timeout huddle and walked across the corner of the court to seek help from Woodrow Wilson Principal Rockey Powell and athletic director J.T. Payne, who were seated along the baseline.
Powell, in a statement released this past weekend, said Nabors was trying “to address an opposing fan who had been using derogatory language and gestures towards him throughout the game.”
In his own response to MetroNews questions, the SSAC’s Dolan said that was the correct course of action.
“Disputes between coaches and fans should be dealt with by the school administration. I would note that both schools’ administration were in attendance at the game,” Dolan stated.
“Originally Coach Gene Nabors left the bench area to seek the help of his administration, who were sitting underneath the bucket near the WW bench. We are currently still determining all of the events that followed. I believe there is legal action taking place and I think it would be inappropriate to comment until that is completed.”
As Dolan alluded, that’s when matters flew out of hand.
Damon, still angry, approaches the Woodrow group along the baseline.
“I’m going off on him. I’m ready to fight,” Damon recalled. “Then his son ran up on me and all hell broke loose.”
That was Donte Nabors, Gene’s son. As the surveillance video shows, Nabors turns around and steadily pushes his son off the court.
“At no time did the assistant coach enter the stands. At no time did the assistant coach engage in a physical altercation with the opposing fan,” Powell, Woodrow Wilson’s principal, described in his statement.
But then, police officers at the game have started to respond. Nabors turns around and an officer is right there. He puts his hands on the officer but does not appear to shove.
Then Nabors is pushed out of the frame and eventually winds up handcuffed. HIs lawyer, Randolph McGraw said Nabors was issued a citation and suffered a broken arm and injured back.
The SSAC looked into whether Nabors should be suspended and decided against it.
As the surveillance video shows, all that goes right through the Woodrow Wilson bench area, where players are still standing nearby because of the timeout.
The game video shows the players’ reaction, which is intense. Some of the players rush from where they are to the corridor where Nabors has been taken out. Others stay in place, with one player picking up a chair and tossing it down.
Woodrow Wilson head coach Brian Nabors, Gene’s brother, said the reactions were a result of normal human emotions during an intense situation.
“The bottom line is, our girls were concerned about their coach — about his safety because he was pushed down very, very hard and it was very unfortunate that took place,” Brian Nabors, Woodrow Wilson’s head coach and Gene’s brother, told Fred Persinger II of West Virginia Radio last week.
The players who left the court were ejected from the game and have had to serve automatic two-game suspensions.
“The rules say if you leave the bench you get suspended. And our kids didn’t leave the bench to go attend the so-called altercation because it wasn’t an altercation. Coach Gene was pushed down.”
The Woodrow Wilson team then goes to the locker room, with some gesturing at Woodrow Wilson fans on the way across the court.
At that point, Greenbrier East Coach Jim Justice gets more directly involved, calling for the game to be forfeited. The game is eventually called. And that’s when Tyler Jackson, sports reporter for Beckley’s Register-Herald newspaper, asked for reaction from Justice, who is also West Virginia’s governor.
“They’re a bunch of thugs,” Justice said in the post-game interview. “The whole team left the bench, the coach is in a fight, they walked off the floor, they called the game.”
For transparency, here’s the entire interview with Justice. Excuse me bumbling over my words, there was a lot going on. pic.twitter.com/2JrH3inLmp
— Tyler Jackson (@TjackRH) February 12, 2020
The word “thugs” can have racial connotations. Woodrow Wilson has a 19 percent black and 72 percent white population. Two black men coach the Flying Lady Eagles team.
The comments drew criticism on social media and at the state Capitol, as well as national attention at media outlets like The Washington Post and Sports Illustrated.
Powell, the Woodrow Wilson principal, was among those who took offense.
“Immediately following the game and in the days thereafter, Woodrow Wilson High School students have been subjected to unfortunate and inappropriate remarks by the coach of the Greenbrier East High School girls’ basketball team,” Powell stated.
“The remarks show complete lack of respect for our students and coaches.”
After controversy swirled about the governor’s post-game comments for several days, Justice had a series of on-one-one interviews with reporters that began with viewings of clips from the game and surveillance videos.
The governor said he was sorry about his use of the word “thugs” and that he didn’t intend any racist connotations. But he said he did not regret calling out what he saw as poor behavior by Woodrow Wilson, the high school where he graduated.
“From the standpoint of the governor and the coach together, I think it would have been a shame to have walked off and said ‘Well, I just hate the way things worked out tonight and we’ll just let the SSAC or whoever attend to it,’” the governor said on Friday afternoon.
“Because I should stand up whether I be the governor, I just be Jim Justice, I be the coach — no matter what I should stand up for our kids. I should. This kind of behavior hurt the Beckley kids. It hurt us all. I should stand up for that and condemn it. Because I don’t want that. I don’t want that in any way, shape, form or fashion.”
The State Police provided a statement this week in response to MetroNews questions. Cpt. Shallon Oglesby said the troopers who responded were not members of the Governor’s security detail.
The statement also confirmed earlier reporting that Gene Nabors was cited for obstructing an officer. Steven Damon was issued a summons for disorderly conduct and Donte Nabors was issued a summons for disorderly conduct and obstructing an officer. Nobody went to jail.
Questions that were left unaddressed were: What security was assigned to the game? What is the protocol for dealing with a crowd disturbance? And what protocol was the officer following in the interaction with Gene Nabors?
Dolan of the SSAC said the video seems to indicate State Police, sheriff’s deputies and security personnel were at the scene, although even he doesn’t have that confirmed.
Damon, the Greenbrier East fan, acknowledged — to some degree — that his role in the situation fell far short of ideal.
“I know there’s things I did in the wrong. I could have handled myself better,” he said on the telephone. “For me to go to that police officer and try to restrain myself was a lot for me to do.”
Greenbrier East and Woodrow Wilson could play again in a little more than a week.
Greenbrier East is the No. 1 sectional seed and Woodrow Wilson is the No. 2 seed. The sectional championship is Friday, Feb. 28.