Charleroi-Monessen football game cancelled after threat made
The high school football series between Monessen and Charleroi is one of the most storied in the WPIAL.
The fierce rivals were scheduled to meet again Friday night in Monessen for a season-opening nonconference game, but a threat made to one of the Charleroi players led the Charleroi administration to cancel the game Friday afternoon.
The game will not be rescheduled.
Charleroi posted a statement Friday afternoon on its school district website.
“Around 11:30 a.m. today we received information regarding a threat directed toward our student athletes at tonight’s away football game,” the post stated.
“Local law enforcement and school resource officers have been conducting an on-going investigation of these threats. Due to the serious nature of these threats, we have decided that (it’s) in the best interest of our students to cancel/postpone this evening’s football game against Monessen to allow the law enforcement authorities to investigate.
“This decision has been made to ensure the health, safety and welfare of students, faculty, spectators and all community stakeholders attending the event.”
On Friday evening, Charleroi superintendent Dr. Ed Zelich shared how the events unfolded.
“At around 11:30 a.m., our football coach (Lance Getsy) contacted me about some players being nervous about social media threats earlier in the morning and a student confirmed the threats (via) Snapchat while adding there was a past history,” he said. “The student said he was told that he would be harmed after the game, so we began an investigation.
“I am not saying anyone is guilty, but there were accusations and it takes time for phone records.”
At that point, Zelich said he contacted Monessen superintendent Dr. Leanne Spazak, who along with Greyhounds athletic director Gina Naccarato met with Zelich for about a half hour.
“We met around noon and discussed a plan to make sure everyone was safe, but it wasn’t enough time to make a decision for the whole community to be safe,” Zelich said. “We decided to talk on the phone to share our findings.”
Mike Blainefield, Monessen’s head football coach, spent the day with his players as the school year has not yet started.
While with the team, he received a call from Naccarato.
“She stated that one or more of our kids may have been accused of making threats and was trying to get more information,” he said. “My attention immediately went from football to the situation.
“I gathered the team to talk to them and they had no idea what I was talking about.”
About 45 minutes later, Naccarato contacted Blainefield again.
“She said one of our players was accused of threatening a Charleroi player through social media,” Blainefield explained. “We have a policy that we don’t allow cell phones or social media in the locker room.”
To get into their own stadium fieldhouse, Monessen’s players must walk through a metal detector.
“After meeting with the accused player and (Naccarato), it was taken out of my hands and I went back in with the kids to keep them calm and focused.”
A conference call was held at 2 p.m. involving school administration from both districts as well as the police chief from each community.
“We asked Charleroi for physical proof of this threat and they were not able to provide us with any,” Naccarato said. “They chose not to come to Monessen to participate in the scheduled game.
“I feel bad for the players, coaches and fans of both communities and it is a shame that a compromise couldn’t be reached to keep this long-standing rivalry going.”
Zelich said he wasn’t assured of the safety of the Charleroi players.
“Monessen felt it was safe to play but, respectfully, I wasn’t (in agreement) of that at the time,” he said. “I feel really bad about it because the game means a lot to both communities. But it is a different era, and if one person from either community got hurt, I would have to live with that.”
Blainefield said the final decision not to play was made by Charleroi.
“(Zelich) was disappointed that we didn’t find any evidence, so we asked him how to proceed,” Blainefield said. “Basically, he didn’t want to have the game.
“We explained to him the precautions that we took by adding additional police officers so that there would be eight in the stands on each side, security on the field and it wasn’t enough to change his mind.”
Blainefield added there would have been metal detectors at the fan entrances.
“We asked him if there was anything else we could do to have the game tonight and at that point, he offered to have the game here (Saturday). But we couldn’t offer the same amount of security as we could tonight. At that time, he declined.”
Zelich said it was Monessen that didn’t want to play Saturday.
“I asked to play the game Saturday at 10 a.m. or noon and they declined,” he said. “I didn’t have a problem with going back to Monessen to play but we didn’t have enough time to do the investigation to make sure the whole community would be safe Friday night. I was trying to buy a few more hours so that we knew everyone would be safe.”
Blainefield fought back emotions throughout the interview, which he conducted while helping serve his players a team dinner.
“It is frustrating and more heartbreaking that you spend an entire offseason explaining the gravity of the rivalry and then there was a good buzz going on because it is two good teams,” he said. “People were coming from out of town for this game.
“Having to tell the kids, hours before kickoff, that they wouldn’t have a game was hard and there were tons of tears.”
In February, the WPIAL put Monessen’s athletic programs on probation for five years. The decision stemmed from a brawl in a Monessen boys basketball game at Clairton. The WPIAL stated that any violation of that probation will result in the “denial of championship rights” and a loss of scheduling for two years.
Naccarato said she has already spoken with WPIAL officials about the situation.