Zach Windom, High School Soccer Player, Attacks Opponent (VIDEO)

Zach Windom, a soccer player on Mississippi's Gulfport High School team, will be punished for his vicious in-game beating of an opponent, according to the Clarion Ledger. The paper reports that the altercation happened late in a game last Saturday in Clinton, Miss. Gulfport had scored a goal to go up 1-0 moments earlier.

In the video below, Windom can be seen attacking Arlington Shirley, a Northwest Rankin player. After sending Shirley to the ground, Windom continues to repeatedly punch his opponent. Shirley's father says his son was sent to the emergency room and suffered a broken wrist, which may or may not have resulted from the fight. Scroll down for video of the incident.

WATCH (via Out of Bounds)

Comments

[johnny g locker]

02:30 PM on 02/14/2010

Boys will boys. It's called testosterone. They like to be competitive and fight.

No big deal.

[sueno]

10:59 AM on 02/14/2010

If anyone agrees that
high schoolers should be
'punching' each other out
is crazy and retro-grade.
We've all played sports
and wrong is wrong-

[Joe Pendleton]

10:04 AM on 02/14/2010

Am I the only one who doesn't get it? This is a total non-story. Two kids vying for position for the ball. The kid with the beard doesn't like the way the other kid is being more physical and he loses his temper. Tackles the kid to the ground. Gets a few awkward punches in. Both teams come in and break it up. That's it. The whole thing lasts 5 to 10 seconds. Come on. Really? This is a story?

[atretrioeciii]

06:27 PM on 02/13/2010

This game is pure torture. I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often.

[unnamed24]

12:31 AM on 02/13/2010

Charges for battery? Thrown in prison?

C'mon are you people serious? It was a fight, and a pretty mild one at that. The kid who started it should probably be suspended for the rest of the year and forced into some serious community service hours.

This really wasn't that bad of a fight and was broken up really, really quickly. I've seen worse in youth sports haha.

And I played soccer in high school. We usually had at least one policeman at each game and if we had a game during a state tournament then there would be more policemen present.

[MichB1]

08:38 PM on 02/12/2010

Too much emphasis on sports. It's sick.

[Anthony Hewetson]

06:50 PM on 02/12/2010

It is amazing to me that so many posters see this as just a fight. If Shirley had jumped Windom and Windom had defended himself ... that would be a fight. If Windom had jumped Shirley and Shirley had defended himself ... that would be a fight. Windom jumped Shirley, Shirley made no attempt to defend himself other than to try to cover his own face, and only Shirley was injured ... that is an assault. Windom wrapped Shirley in a headlock and threw five punches to the face as he was driving him to the ground - with no attempt at defense on the part of Shirley. By the by, a fair fight which so many of you seem to be defending usually features two participants in the same weight class - not a bearded behemouth beating the crap out of a much shorter and much lighter opponent.

[tcny]

03:20 PM on 02/14/2010

Ah... good, ol' Mississippi. Notice that the first person ejected was the black kid who was attacked. Surely, the goon who threw the punches must have been the "victim" here.

[wakeuptothecon]

02:50 PM on 02/12/2010

it looked like ref sent more players off on the team that had the player that was attacked
typical bad refereeing.
he should have immediately sent the kid trowing the punches off and had the cop that was on the field
escort him off the field. he could have then consulted with his asst to see if anyone else should be punished. in my mind the others on the field seemed only to be holding eachother back.
The Refereeing was terrible he did not immediately take control of the stuation.

[KIVPossum]

05:42 AM on 02/15/2010

Nope, standard fare in such a situation to consult with the lines and decide who gets what, then hand out the card one by one.

We don't know what happened before the assault...probably the referee lost control of the game much earlier on, which lead to this.

When I did high school centers I had a standard policy...1st time it was legit, I'd show a yellow to let the players know who owned the field. Amazing how a well timed yellow and a couple of early directs can get the boys calmed down for the game.

[maxwellinformed]

02:47 PM on 02/12/2010

I bet it was over a girl.

[tqcobb]

02:36 PM on 02/12/2010

majority of these posts reek with double standard......if the roles were reversed wouldn't see so many dismissive posts (its just a fight,etc.)

[huffyISaHottie]

02:35 PM on 02/12/2010

# 28 looks like he doesn't have an athletic bone in his body and decided to take out it on his more athletic opponent..there was a time you could hide the nonathletic student in a soccer uniform, but that time has come and gone

[kcflood]

01:55 PM on 02/12/2010

Ok, it says he's being punished - but what is the punishment? Jail time, hopefully.

[ramper]

12:35 PM on 02/12/2010

Their school taxes at work.

[SouthernYankeeBelle]

04:36 PM on 02/12/2010

Lets hope that the ref's put a stop to kind of stuff. This isn't the NHL. These are high school kids.

[amiri1]

03:42 AM on 02/12/2010

It was the referees non-response of the on field crisis which is most stunning. It was as if they were afraid to red card the crazy kid. There was racial tension or maybe the kid's daddy is the sheriff or something because they were afraid to do their job.

[bsrguitar]

01:51 PM on 02/12/2010

the aftermath wasn't really shown... I am sure he got red-carded.

[DRaymond]

02:01 AM on 02/12/2010

My referee training has been to never get in the middle of a fight. it is dangerous and counterproductive. You have 22 players on the field and the last thing you can do is get in the middle of a melee. You whistle, bark orders for them to separate and take close observation so you can be complete in your report. The one thing that they did differently than I would have in the situation is that I would have kept the two teams apart from each other until I was ready to resume play.

In addition I might have very well decided to end the match.

[argyle]

12:43 AM on 02/13/2010

exactly

[KIVPossum]

05:44 AM on 02/15/2010

Right on all counts. I would have abandoned the match, for sure.