By Tarik El-Bashir, Washington Post, Tuesday, February 17, 2004; Page D01

Late in a recent high school hockey game, Eric Ridgely says he just "snapped." After an opponent delivered a cross-check to Ridgely's facemask, the senior captain of the South River High School team threw off his gloves, jarred loose his opponent's facemask and helmet, and punched him twice in the jaw.

Ridgely knew his actions would lead to an automatic ejection and a suspension for his team's remaining two games, effectively ending his high school career. But in that moment, with his team losing by a goal in the final seconds of an important game, he didn't care.

"He was trying to provoke me," said Ridgely, South River's best player. "So I went after him. It's okay in hockey. It's part of the game. . . . I knew I was not going to play again."

As high school hockey in the Washington area has grown to more than 110 teams -- the vast majority having "club" or "community" status at the schools they represent -- the sport is struggling to contain the problem of fighting between players during games. And with the teams hoping one day to gain recognition on par with high school football and basketball teams, the fights aren't helping.

Fights in school-sponsored sports are considered to be very rare. They can be punished with suspensions from school, something that rarely happens in hockey because most area teams have no official connection to the school. Mandatory suspensions that range from two games to a season-long ban, and even the recent enforcement of a more strict definition of fighting by the Maryland Scholastic Hockey League, has done little to eliminate it from high school hockey. In the MSHL, there were 50 fighting penalties, including Ridgely's, in the 77-team league's first 339 games.

"Fighting is one of our biggest problems as far as selling the game to schools and" potential players, said MSHL Commissioner Don Gensler, who oversees the area's largest league with 1,349 players from private and public schools in Maryland. "It always has been. . . . I can't say enough against fighting at the high school level. It comes down to what kids think is socially acceptable and what the coaches teach them."

Two players had been suspended for fighting twice. And a club team made up of players from St. John's High in Northwest Washington has had six players suspended for fighting, according to league documents.

"At our level, it shouldn't be tolerated," said DeMatha sophomore Chris Sams, who recently was suspended for fighting for the first time. "There's no reason or purpose for it."

High school hockey fights are rarely, if ever, as violent or bloody as those seen almost nightly in the NHL, primarily because high school players wear full face shields and bare-fist punches are rarely landed, players and coaches said. Gensler said he was unaware of a fight ever resulting in a serious injury.

The damage to the sport's credibility, however, has been done, at least in the eyes of some administrators. No major public school jurisdiction in the Washington area recognizes hockey as an official school activity, despite the growing call for such status among hockey supporters. Some private schools have teams competing at the varsity level, and others have club teams.

"Fighting is another variable that we're looking at as we determine what level of recognition Fairfax County will give ice hockey," said Paul Jansen, Fairfax County's coordinator of athletics and student activities. "Kids follow their role models, from the type of uniform to the style of play. The reputation that professional hockey players have is that fighting is a part of the game. I don't know of another sport where that is the case."

Jansen said he was not aware of any athlete competing in a Fairfax County Public Schools-sponsored sport being suspended this academic year for fighting. That figure accounts for 13 fall and winter sports at 24 high schools.

Among the 301 public schools in the Virginia High School League, there were 24 fighting-related suspensions for all sports during the fall season, and 11 so far this winter, according to the VHSL's Tom Zimorski.

At the 23 Montgomery County public high school athletic programs, there has been a total of seven ejections this school year, according to William "Duke" Beattie, the county's athletics supervisor. Beattie said it was unclear how many of those ejections were for fighting.

"Yes, [fighting] does concern me, but we don't have anything to do with [hockey] teams," Beattie said. "I don't want anything to shed a bad light on our school system, even if they are not directly representing one of our schools."

In the MSHL, a player receives a two-game suspension after his first fighting major penalty, a three-game suspension after his second and is banned for the remainder of the season if he fights a third time, Gensler said. Gensler said he has yet to hand out a season-long ban in the league's 16-year existence.

"One thing I have found is that if you begin taking games away from kids, that grabs their attention," Gensler said. "We haven't made the rules more strict because then the referees wouldn't call it. [Referees] don't want to ruin a kid's career or season for taking a swing at another player."

Fighting has decreased slightly in the MSHL since the league instituted the "one-punch rule" three years ago. Under the rule, a referee must assess a major fighting penalty even if only one punch is thrown, an action that previously may have only resulted in a roughing minor penalty. Some coaches said that while the one-punch rule may serve as a deterrent to some players, it may also contribute to the high number of fighting majors, since referees determine what constitutes a punch.

In the 35-team, 500-player Northern Virginia Scholastic Hockey League, players who receive their first fighting major are suspended for two games. Their second fight results in a season-long ban.

Still, 10 players in the NVSHL have been suspended for fighting this season. Of those, three compete for teams composed of students who attend Fairfax County public schools, a detail that has not been lost on Fairfax administrators, who at the moment are considering whether to recognize hockey as a club sport.

NVSHL Executive Director Jeff Nygaard said he knows how to stop fighting: impose a season-long suspension after a player's first fight. His proposal was voted down by the league's membership last year, he said.

"Quite obviously, one of the major concerns high school principals have is the culture of the acceptance of fighting," said Westfield Principal Dale Rumberger, who is also the chairman of the Northern Region Council, which oversees interscholastic athletics in Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria. "In other sports, fighting would in all likelihood result in the permanent removal of that student from the team, or at the very least, significant penalties. It's definitely one of the things principals are concerned about."

Although high school hockey fights don't resemble those in the NHL, where fighting is viewed by many as an acceptable form of self-policing and fans cheer when two players drop their sticks and gloves to square off at center ice, some suspect that high schoolers take their cues from professionals.

"Fighting in hockey is institutionalized at the professional level, therefore it does not surprise me that it also happens at the high school level," said George Washington University Professor Richard Zamoff, who teaches a course called "Sociology of Sports." "It's no different from [high school] basketball players bumping their chests, or football players spiking the ball: If they see it on television, they are going to emulate that behavior. If kids are engaging in fighting, there must be some reward for doing it, whether it is subtle or not so subtle."

Said Washington Capitals enforcer Stephen Peat: "Fighting is definitely a part of the culture of hockey, but it doesn't have a place at the high school level, or in any league [where] it is against the rules. Fighting in the NHL keeps guys honest by cracking down on the cheap shots. In high school, players should be working on their skills, and that's it. I've always felt that a hard body check sends the message, too, because your body is a whole lot bigger than your fist."

Fights often happen after heavy hits, when large student sections are present and when games are lopsided. They also occur, coaches and players said, when one team's talent level far exceeds the other's, a situation that often leads to players becoming frustrated.

Ridgely's fight -- which took place with 18 seconds remaining in South River's 1-0 loss to Old Mill on Jan. 29 -- incurred a 10-game suspension because of his other infractions from that game and previous contests. The length of his ban was the longest of any player in the MSHL this season.

"I don't like it when Eric fights," Ridgely's mother, Cyndi, said. "But I've seen him get in a fight before. Nobody got hurt. It was just another youth hockey fight. They are so well protected. Eric is not a dirty player, he's just aggressive. It's part of the game. Boys will be boys."

Said South River Coach Jeff Browne: "It's not like he gouged the kid's eye out. He had been going back and forth with the other kid all game. The refs started letting things go, and that's how it started."

Some parents of hockey players are concerned.

"I've seen an increase in fighting the past two or three years," said Laurie Bodenheimer, who has four sons who play hockey, two for their high school. "It seems like there is more fighting, and less done about it. It definitely concerns me. There are certainly teams where fighting is part of their culture. That comes from the coaches."

Said Gonzaga senior Matt Bodenheimer, who has not been involved in a fight this season: "Some kids just take [checking] a little too personal, especially if the crowd gets into it. The games are really tense. Fighting seems to be on the rise, but I feel it could be reduced if referees called the games tighter. . . . It's sort of tolerated in hockey. But you don't see it in other sports."

In DeMatha's 5-3 victory over Churchill on Jan. 28, DeMatha's Sams got entangled with a Churchill player in the corner. After getting dragged to the ice by an opposing player, then taking several punches to his midsection, the sophomore said he could no longer suppress his anger. As the referee tried to separate the players, Sams, who had not been penalized all season, threw two punches to the head of the other player.

"I tried to skate away," Sams said. "But it was a heated game. I was angry.

"I'm embarrassed by the whole thing. I definitely learned my lesson. . . . I'm not sure why fighting is accepted [in hockey]. It's just the nature of the game, I guess."

Said St. John's Athletic Director Vince Fisher: "Just look at TV. That's where those kids get it from. It's the culture of hockey that needs to change, in my mind."

Fisher two weeks ago met with several players on the school's club team who had been suspended for fighting and warned them that further penalties could result in disciplinary action from the school. Other than the hockey players, only one St. John's athlete had been suspended from his team for disciplinary reasons this school year, according to Fisher, who added that the school's hockey players have not been in a fight since their talk.

"All it takes is for a grandmother or athletic director who is attending their first game to see a fight and it ruins it for everybody," Gensler said. "They look at us like we're a bunch of goons."

Special correspondent Brian Costa contributed to this report.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company