Animosity between a taunting fan and a high school basketball coach spilled over into the stands following a game in North Carolina this week.
West Lincoln High School head coach Chadwick Rock Wright, 48, was charged with one misdemeanor count each of assault on a female, simple assault and battery and disorderly conduct, after assaulting fans after a game.
Wright is also a P.E. teacher at West Lincoln, and the fans he allegedly assaulted were family members of one of his players.
Police said the assault happened after a game between West Lincoln and Newton-Conover.
A deputy working security at the game heard a fan yelling at Wright as he left the floor following the game. Wright apparently ran into the stands and struck the man in the head and the two “began wrestling around in the stands,” according to a police report obtained by the local CBS affiliate. A female then began taunting Wright and was eventually pulled into the fray.
Wright was eventually taken into custody, where he was charged and released on a $1,500 bond.
“Coach Wright’s a really laid-back coach and [I] definitely did not expect anything like that from him,” student Haven Smith says. “Coach Wright flung off his jacket and went at the man that was taunting him throughout the whole fourth quarter."
“A bad choice was made. It’s regretted, can’t go back and change it," said West Lincoln High School athletic director David Avery. "I think at the end of the day [the students] feel like they know that our coaches care about kids. We’re in it for them.”
