One would hope there's not too much fallout for Ottawa native Garry Gallimore.
Our own Rob Pettapiece put a together a post for cisblog.ca over the incident Wednesday in Cape Breton involving Gallimore, who's an assistant basketball coach for the St. FX Men. The YouTube-age shows there was definitely physical contact made with a timekeeper after the visiting X-Men tried to get the timekeeper's attention when they weren't granted a timeout they had asked for while a Cape Breton player was on the foul line.
There is no condemning nor condoning Gallimore's actions. No one needs a reminder that you never, ever touch an official in sports. At the same time, given the packed gym and raucous atmosphere — it was also, in one of the peculiarities of the Atlantic conference, a four-point game in the standings — it was understandable. People are human and this is a first-year assistant coach.
The incident starts to unfold around the six-minute mark.
The most striking part, watching the 10-minute highlight package, is the absence of security at Cape Breton's gym, given the frenzied atmosphere. Standards vary throughout the CIS, but it's hard to imagine many gyms where spectators are allowed to stand along the baseline with no barrier between them and the players. Cape Breton certainly has to look at what it's doing to protect players and coaches. It's a great setting for a game, but a fan rushing over to take a swipe at a coach? That should never happen, either.
It would be a shame if this led to a more muted atmosphere at games down East, since by the looks of it was a wonderful night in Sydney, otherwise.
Related:
Things get a little crazy in Cape Breton (Posting Up with Chad Lucas)
CBU to file complaint against St. F.X. coach after incident (Halifax Herald)
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2 comments:
Can't say the old fun police at Queen's would do much as they have a hands off policy. All they can do is annoy the crap out of you.
There is absolutely no doubt Gary Gallimore was wrong for what he did and does merit a suspension.
However, the Cape Breton university officials are equally culpable, in my mind.
Crowd security was a joke,in fact, it was non-existent.
Given the supercharged atmosphere that already exists between these schools, the near total absence of security is inexcusable.
I hope the AUS will use this incident to put into place clear guidelines for minimum security requirements that should be expected of any hosting school.
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