Virginia Girls Basketball Coach Grabs, Shoves Spectator In Wild Outburst At Game
Virginia Girls H.S. Basketball Coach Grabs, Shoves Spectator ... Wild Outburst At Game
A Virginia girls high school basketball coach snapped on a spectator during a game last week -- climbing into the stands to grab and shove the man ... and the wild outburst was all captured on video.
The incident happened at the end of the Richlands contest against Wise Central on Feb. 23 ... when Richlands coach Tom Rife went after a man behind his team's bench.
You can see in broadcast footage of the game, the person in the white T-shirt appeared to say things to Rife ... which set the coach off.
Good ole boy network fired coach who was amazing & had the emotional intelligence to control themselves to the bare minimum we expect of our student athletes, & replaced him with this. Our girls deserve better. I expect the immediate termination of head coach Tom Rife. pic.twitter.com/dBpZAkRLms
— @TheFearlessQueen (@QueenOfManLand) February 24, 2023 @QueenOfManLand
Rife jumped over some chairs and put his hands around the man's shirt. He later seemed to shove him repeatedly -- while calling for others to intervene.
He was ultimately pulled away by others -- and Richlands went on to lose the game, 54-51.
When the coach has had enough of daddy ball. pic.twitter.com/v4bo5jv6Nh
— Chad Baker (@ChadBlue83) February 26, 2023 @ChadBlue83
Tazewell County Public Schools Dr. Christopher Stacy said in a statement a day after the incident they've launched an investigation into it all.
"While we do not condone any misconduct from our coaches or spectators at this time we are still investigating the actions of all parties involved," Stacy said.