Wow. It’s one thing for a coach to instigate some sort of altercation with a referee. Based on how poor some of those officials are at their jobs, you could almost not blame them at a certain point for wanting to at least give them a little unfriendly nudge.
Never in my life would I have expected a ref to cold-cock a coach like this! WTF!? Thanks to TMZ Sports for reporting on the matter and grabbing the footage, which can be viewed via X post below.
The guilty party is indeed Brandon Knapper, who used to play guard for West Virginia and at two other programs. A former high-level Division I player. Refereeing a high school basketball game. Punching a coach in the face.
I mean there are falls from grace, and then there’s this. No idea what Brandon Knapper has been up to in life since playing collegiate hoops at the highest level. Whatever it is, he may need to figure out a way to center himself so as to avoid violent outbursts such as these.
Hopefully this is a one-off incident. According to the TMZ report, this occurred in an Oct. 21 game at at Santiago High School in Corona, California. Oak Hills head coach Rob Alexander was the one on the receiving end of Knapper’s fist. I truly can’t fathom what would compel you to punch a high school basketball coach.
Here’s the statement released by the local school district, again via TMZ:
“The District is thankful for the swift and decisive action taken by the event promoters and local law enforcement. We are also happy to report that Coach Alexander is in good spirits and looking forward to returning to coaching and teaching as soon as possible.
We have the utmost confidence that law enforcement, CIF, and Oak Hills High School, with the support of the District, will investigate the incident thoroughly and handle it appropriately.”
Poor guy. I mean unless he said the most ignorant, hateful thing that Knapper had ever heard, it ain’t grounds for punching someone in their mug. Let’s not go down that hypothetical road too much.
In the midst of this whole saga, there was actually an Oak Hills player who came sprinting in to defend his coach. While I wouldn’t advocate retaliatory violence, it probably speaks well to who Alexander is as a human that one of his players came in hot and knocked Knapper up side the head.
