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Sutter, CA (KCRA) — A Sutter Union High School football player is facing disciplinary action after cellphone video surfaced showing him using a sledgehammer to destroy a chair inside a West Valley High School locker room.
The incident reportedly happened on Dec. 1 after the Northern Section Championship title game. West Valley beat Sutter Union 7-0.
The game was intense.
“The energy was different. It was a big moment for everybody in their football careers,” Sutter Union student Tyler McCool said about the game, which was covered by Shasta County Sports.
The senior running back called it the biggest game of the season, with lots of emotion on the line.
“For us seniors, we knew it could potentially be our last game,” McCool said. “We were never going to play together.”
What happened on the field isn’t the only thing making headlines.
A widely-shared video, which was posted on SnapChat and Facebook, shows what happened after the helmets and cleats came off.
A member of the Sutter Union team used what was supposed to be their sideline prop — a sledgehammer — to destroy a cloth reclining chair inside the West Valley locker room.
McCool, who saw the video but wasn’t in the locker room at the time, said his teammate wasn’t in the right sate of mind.
“He’d just finish playing one of the hardest football games of his life,” McCool said.
McCool made it clear he’s not defending the act and doesn’t condone the behavior. In fact, he thinks it makes the team look bad.
“People do make mistakes, especially at a young age,” he said.
“We will not tolerate this kind of behavior. It’s not what we stand for,” Sutter Union High School Superintendent and Principal Ryan Robison said in a statement.
Robison said the student in the video accepted responsibility and wants to make amends.
“When you lose, you have to lose graciously and there’s a right and a wrong way to handle things,” Robison said. “How this young man handled it was wrong.”
The student seen in the video has already been disciplined. However, he still has to work off the monetary value of the damage.
The West Valley High School athletic director said the situation was being taken care of and that they “didn’t feel additional coverage of the incident would be beneficial to the relationship between the schools and students.”
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