Everyone has seen the legendary highlight from The Game, with Cal Berkeley football players maurauding through a jubilant Stanford band, which thought it was safe to celebrate a win. Now another major controversy has emerged in Florida over when it is appropriate to have a school's band on the field after the undefeated New Smyrna (Fla.) High football team ran roughshod over the Spruce Creek (Fla.) High band as it performed its pregame show.
There's little question that the New Smyrna players were overly enthusiastic about skipping and jumping through a Spruce Creek formation, celebrating and pumping each other up. Still, the players in question could justify interacting with the Spruce Creek band set up for the rather simple and obvious reason that they hadn't completed their pregame warmups yet.
While some might sympathize with the New Smyrna squad, it was the New Smyrna school district which stepped forward to accept blame for the incident on behalf of its athletes. According to Orlando NBC affiliate WESH, New Smyrna principal Jim Tager wrote a letter of apology to his Spruce Creek counterpart and the school's band director, apologizing for the rather crude actions of his players before the teams' game had even kicked off, particularly considering the fact that the game served as Spruce Creek's senior night.
Shortly after Tager released his comments officials from both schools were barred from speaking to the press as an official incident report was opened to investigate the circumstances leading up to the unexpected band-football on-field interaction.
Of course, a simple gag order for members of the two schools involved couldn't keep area parents from weighing in on the controversy.
"I saw the video and maybe they shouldn't have walked through the band," New Smyrna Beach parent Lorraine Washington told WESH. "But you know, it's kids. Kids are kids."
In this case, one set of very talented football kids simply couldn't resist making a scene by showing up their musical counterparts, creating an embarrassing investigation for all involved.
Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.