Anthony Knox Jr. had already cruised through his New Jersey high school wrestling meet when his father said he couldn’t take the name-calling anymore.
By the family’s account, some parents and students from an opposing team had been hurling epithets at Anthony, his teammates and even his mother during a meet earlier this year. After Anthony Knox Sr. got up from the bleachers to confront the other parents, he said, a brawl broke out and his son followed close behind.
Within minutes, both Knox men were being led out of the gymnasium in handcuffs by the police in Collingswood, N.J., east of Philadelphia. By day’s end, Anthony’s status as a top wrestling recruit was in jeopardy. A debate ensued over who or what was to blame. Was it the father and the star wrestler, the opposing fans, or the increasingly high-pressure atmosphere of high school sports?
The skirmish on Feb. 22 spotlighted the intensity of rivalries in New Jersey’s highly competitive high school wrestling scene, as young athletes from across the state angle for the attention of recruiters from the nation’s top college programs in a relentless contact sport.
Parents, naturally, are part of the combustible mix. While parental interference in youth sports is nothing new, fierce competition and an ever more lucrative college athletics landscape contribute to a volatile environment that has been “building generationally to an apex,” said Travis Dorsch, the founding director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University.
