A high school basketball player is facing felony charges after his foul behavior on court allegedly resulted in another player’s broken nose.
On February 27, the mother of a 17-year-old reported that her son had been maliciously struck by another player during a high school basketball game in Mt. Storm, West Virginia.
According to WBOY News, the woman claimed that during the game, her son was “elbowed in the face” by a player from Harman High School, who was later identified as 18-year-old Gage Ketterman.
The outlet reports that the boy, a student at Union High School, was taken to an area hospital due to a broken nose that was bleeding “profusely” for more than four hours.
Inter Mountain News writes that the juvenile also had a small laceration on the bridge of his nose and eye area, which made it hard for her son to breath.
“The actions of this boy were obviously intentional, and he was trying to hurt people,” the mother said in the complaint filed with police.
Sneaky and Shady
The victim, who is identified as Corbin on Facebook, is described as “a good student and a good athlete” who “doesn’t lose his temper.”
“He doesn’t retaliate against players who ARE dirty, [and] to have to sit out the rest of his basketball season with a broken nose over a punk who cheap shotted him while his back was turned is obscured and sends a message as being weak,” writes Alyson Streets, who said she’s “proud” of her “little brother.”
Adding several clips of the game to her post, Streets explains that Harman was down by 35 points with “two minutes left in the game” when one of the “players elbowed Corbin across the face with full intent of inflicting some type of injury.”
“There is also several other videos of the same player attempting to hit our boys with his elbow, pushing our players, and then checking his elbow out after the fact he whacked my brother. Sneaky, shady, and downright disrespectful,” Streets writes, adding that she and her mother initially thought the hits were “accidental” until after reviewing the clips from the game.
Included in her clips is an image of Corbin with his bloodied, broken nose.
‘Criminal malicious in nature’
After watching multiple videos taken at the game, authorities said Ketterman “placed both his feet firmly on the floor, reared back and swung his elbow directly into the face” of the victim, with what appeared to be “intentional and criminal malicious in nature.”
Police also confirmed that the teen was seen taunting other players from the rival school, “swinging his elbow wildly at the head of another” player.
After striking Corbin, officials noted that Ketterman was seen “wiping something off the elbow he had just used to strike [the Union player].”
Ketterman, who was 18 years old at the time of the incident, was charged as an adult and will appear in court on May 22. The New York Post reports that a warrant was issued for malicious assault and for two counts of attempted malicious assault.
These charges are severe and carry significant legal consequences if he’s convicted.
This incident serves as a grim reminder that the emotions and tensions of sports can sometimes spiral out of control – with real-world consequences. As the legal case unfolds, both schools and the wider community will be watching closely, not only for justice but also for lessons that can help prevent future incidents like this from happening on the court.
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