That’s Zach Windom. And he’s chosen an odd method to prematurely celebrate the Mississippi Class 6A High School state championship his soccer team is about to win.
Gulfport High School had just taken a 1-0 lead over Northwest Rankin in the latter stages of the match. Shortly thereafter Windom decided that Arlington Shirley’s face would make a good punching bag.
School Athletic Director Howard McNeill said disciplinary actions had been handed out but that district policy doesn’t allow them to disclose it. Quoth McNeill: “We certainly regret the situation and that the championship lost some luster.” You think?
The Northwest Rankin principal has seen the video and said he would take no disciplinary action because his players were trying to break up the fight.
Anyway in the fallout: Shirley broke his wrist, though his father would not say if it happened in the fight. Additionally, Northwest Rankin, had two players sent off from the fight while Gulfport, the team that started the melee, only had one. Ah Howard Webb, your influence is far-reaching.
Not lost on us: 1) This is Mississippi and 2) Shirley is the only black player on the opposition. Also 3) We’re pretty sure the second Rankin player sent off gives the ref a “f**k you”.
“you better take him out of the game!”
please listen to her. dear god, please listen to her.
The referee kind of nancy-boys out of the way at the 21 second mark. Also where are the ARs in all of this? The three man crew is supposed to form a triangle of control.
They do show up a little later on, so maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to judge, but still the players basically had to break up the fight by themselves.
Pretty sure Zach Windom just put himself on MacLeish’s radar.
Man, I’d hate to see what Zach Windom tries to do to a player who actually fouls him.
UF needs to sponsor a Zach Windom-Liz Lambert cage match.
So much for the hospitality state being a true state motto.
what an a**hole. Guys like that should play american football. I’m sick of bros playing soccer and being super macho a**holes
There has to be some other sort of context going on here. No one just starts wailing on someone like that without justification. Zidane was goaded into a headbutt with some crude remarks about his sister; can you imagine what Shirley might have said?
At the :14 mark, it looks like Shirley connects with Windom’s face with slap/punch, but it’s mostly obscured by the camera angle. It in no way justifies what comes immediately after, but it is a justification for the Shirley being shown red first right after the fight.
Windom would have cried like a bitch had he been fouled by Liz Lambert. or actually been fouled.
Cureelo, your mother is a whore. Feel goaded enough to retaliate. Zidanes loss of control was not that one time nor was headbutting a rival, so there was a pattern there and a lack of self control besides, most players in all leagues will always know which opponent to goad,.. guys like zidane are easy targets but the loss of control is THEIR fault only.
everyone has had those things happen to them,
Cureelo; i was trying to prove a point… i forgot to add the ‘sarcasm; tag at the end.
Look, I will not condone what this player did and I hope he receives at least a suspension from his school and should face some criminal assault charges on top of that. To say that Shirley was ejected because he’s black is ludicrous. I don’t think he should have been ejected for defending himself but there is also a black player from GHS in the middle of the fight who was not ejected. Don’t go blaming the refs for being racist because in this case there are plenty of legitimate reasons to say these refs are incompetent – the video proves it.
Hey bacmaxfli: Think your inference is pretty off the mark there. We’re not saying race had anything to do with punishment the ref may or may not have issued…
give it up. stereotypes about MS show your ignorance and potential prejudice is the same as the kid that threw the punches. people here are no less or more racist than anywhere else in this country.
well if you were actually there you would have seen that Zach was going after the kid that had been messing him all night. the other team threw the first punch so maybe you should pay close attention to the video before you start running your mouth.
I agree with Gulfport student. I wasnt there and didnt see the match, but just stumbled upon it on youtube. The player on the blue team and black team ran into each other, and if you look closely you can see that the player on the black team threw a punch right before the blue player did. (look to the left of the blue players head right before the fight) That may not warrant his response, but it was certainly not unprovoked and probably was not racist either. It does not look like a premeditated attack like everyone seems to be making it out to be. you guys have the fucking video, you can see what happens and you can see the first punch being thrown by the black team dont let the news or whatever sway you because they want to glamorize the story or have a scapegoat to go after. he threw a punch then got the shit kicked out of him in retaliation.
You know what is funny is this guy is the roommate of my big brother and I have to stay a week with them and I just found out about this. I’m totally keeping my mouth shut around him.