Fines, player suspensions levied from brawl at SC football championship. Here are details
Twenty-four players were disciplined and two teams were penalized for a brawl that took place after the S.C. High School League’s Class 3A football state championship game in December.
The altercation happened after Oceanside Colleagiate’s 28-7 victory Dec. 5 over Belton-Honea Path, starting in the handshake line, spilling over to a sideline and lasting about a minute. At least four BHP players and three Oceanside players threw punches in the brawl, according to documents obtained by The State through an open records request. Others were documented as pushing, shoving or kicking a player from the other team.
According to a video used by the SCHSL’s investigation of the incident, teams were wrapping up the postgame handshake when a Belton-Honea Path player walked toward an Oceanside player and threw a punch.
Coaches from both sides jumped in to try and defuse the situation. When it seemed like things had calmed down, video showed a BHP player ran and tackled an Oceanside player and assistant coach John Drummond. Things escalated from there.
“Coach Drummond diffuses the situation after (player name redacted) gets punched that starts the whole event,” Oceanside athletic director Mark Meyer said in an email to the SHCSL. “Everything calmed down until Coach Drummond was tackled from behind by the BHP player.”
Meyer also noted that another Oceanside coach saw a player “on the ground getting kicked and punched and jumps on top of our own player to shield him from the assault.“
Head coaches from both teams discussed the fight with reporters after the game. BHP coach Russell Blackston is no longer the school’s football coach, but it was never said if the fight was the reason he’s no longer with the program.
“They came after us,” Oceanside coach Brent LaPrad told reporters in December. “Had my kids on the side. They were going that way and we were going this way. Four guys came after our kids. It is all on video. We got it. We let the cameras run.
“... They just had some kids that acted out of character. It’s not good for everybody.”
Leadership from the schools and SCHSL reviewed multiple videos from the incident in order to determine punishments and which students and coaches were involved.
BHP said eight of its players were ”heavily involved,” and that one of its assistant coaches pushed a student back by the facemask and had a verbal altercation with an Oceanside coach. Oceanside, meanwhile, said four of its players threw punches.
“We watched this for several hours and tried to document everything we saw,” BHP principal Mary Boarts said in an email to the SCHSL.
Of the 24 players reported by the schools as being involved — 12 from each team — several earned heavy penalties.
Ten of the BHP players received two-five game suspensions from their next sport, the documents revealed. One BHP player was suspended by the SCHSL indefinitely.
Both schools also handed out their own penalties, with Belton Honea-Path suspending one player from athletic activities for the rest of the school year. Six BHP players were not allowed to attend the team’s football banquet and were ineligible for postseason awards, the documents showed.
The SCHSL gave four Oceanside players multiple-game suspensions toward their next sport, and four others received one-game suspensions. Oceanside also handed its own sanctions to three players who threw punches. Those penalties varied from four days of in-school suspensions and missing the next seven athletic contests. Four other Oceanside players who “aggressively” pushed BHP players were given a day of in-school suspension and were suspended from the next football game, or another sport if they played one.
The teams as a whole were also penalized. Both BHP and Oceanside will play all of their playoff games for the 2026 season on the road. The teams will lose three practices and be limited to two scrimmages, or one scrimmage and one jamboree, for the 2026 season. The schools were fined $500 each.
The schools could have appealed the sanctions. If they lost an appeal, however, they would have been banned from the 2026 playoffs. Both schools are on “restrictive probation” for 2026-27 school year, meaning they could face more penalties if any similar issues take place.
This story was originally published March 25, 2026 at 2:57 PM.
