KINGSPORT, TN — A bizarre brawl broke out at a girls softball tournament in northeast Tennessee this weekend.
Parents of players from a pair of 12-and-under teams from North Carolina engaged in fisticuffs following a game, sending many a grown man sprawling and tumbling down a field-side hill. Bryan Sayers from Tazewell, Va., who was Kingsport’s Brickyard Park watching his own daughter’s team, captured the scene and posted it on Facebook.
The teams of the parents involved were disqualified from the remainder of the tournament but no one was arrested or seriously injured. Kingsport Police said by the time officers arrived, they were unable to find anyone involved in the fight or anyone willing to place charges.
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Todd McLemore, Kingsport Parks and Rec’s athletic program coordinator, told the Kingsport Times-News the fight was between parents of the East Wilkes Cardinal Heat and the Blue Ridge Explosion, both out of North Carolina. McLemore told the paper the Cardinals were scheduled to play the winner of a game between Blue Ridge and another team
"Apparently some spectators were very vocal towards the umpire calls in favor of Blue Ridge and it just got louder and louder," he told the paper, which prompted Blue Ridge parents to confront the Cardinals parents, someone was pushed and, as McLemore said "then all chaos broke out."
USA Softball, which organized the Kingsport tournament, removed the teams from future competitions.
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