Early Tuesday afternoon, Southwestern Community College and North Iowa Area Community College released a joint statement on the altercation following the SWCC and NIACC men’s basketball game Saturday.
“The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) National Office has reviewed the video footage and incident report from the men’s basketball game between Southwestern Community College and North Iowa Area Community College on Saturday, February 2, 2019. Based on the video and reports reviewed, the NJCAA will not sanction any student athletes or coaches for this incident.”
The statement goes on to say, “The Mason City Police Department will continue to investigate the involvement of the fans engaged in the incident.”
Southwestern Community College co-athletic director Doug North added that the NJCAA is not handing down sanctions to Southwestern, but speculated that could be a possibility in the future if new evidence came to light.
“With today’s technology, I guess you never know what video might come up in the future, so not that we’re aware of at this time,” said North.
Mason City Chief of Police Jeff Brinkley confirmed reports of injuries following the altercation, stating that three people were injured following the incident, but all refused medical attention.
Brinkley didn’t comment on the level of involvement from players, but added that the incident occurred on the court.
“There were players from both sides that were, I mean it happened on the court, so I guess how you level involvement, I won’t comment on that specifically at this point,” said Brinkley.
“I guess, based on everything we know, there was multiple people from basically both institutions involved. To what extent, I don’t know,” North said.
Brinkley was unsure if the NJCAA and the two community colleges involved are waiting on Mason City Police’s investigation to conclude to address any potential future punishment.
As of now, charges have not been pressed or filed, but the investigation is still ongoing.
Mason City Police couldn’t determine an exact number of individuals involved in the altercation, but Brinkley speculated that close to a dozen people were involved.
“I have no idea. ... A dozen, maybe. We’re still reviewing video and things like that. I don’t know if we have any hard numbers of what that’s going to look like yet,” said Brinkley.
Brinkley added that he doesn’t have a hard date as to when the investigation will conclude, but he is hoping to resolve the matter as soon as possible.
Southwestern men’s basketball and NIACC men’s basketball do not have another regular season contest scheduled against each other, but the possibility remains of another contest in the Region XI tournament if their paths align.