Anthony Knox Jr. had already cruised through his New Jersey high school wrestling meet when his father said he couldn’t take the name-calling anymore.
By the family’s account, some parents and students from an opposing team had been hurling epithets at Anthony, his teammates and even his mother during a meet earlier this year. After Anthony Knox Sr. got up from the bleachers to confront the other parents, he said, a brawl broke out and his son followed close behind.
Within minutes, both Knox men were being led out of the gymnasium in handcuffs by the police in Collingswood, N.J., east of Philadelphia. By day’s end, Anthony’s status as a top wrestling recruit was in jeopardy. A debate ensued over who or what was to blame. Was it the father and the star wrestler, the opposing fans, or the increasingly high-pressure atmosphere of high school sports?
The skirmish on Feb. 22 spotlighted the intensity of rivalries in New Jersey’s highly competitive high school wrestling scene, as young athletes from across the state angle for the attention of recruiters from the nation’s top college programs in a relentless contact sport.
Parents, naturally, are part of the combustible mix. While parental interference in youth sports is nothing new, fierce competition and an ever more lucrative college athletics landscape contribute to a volatile environment that has been “building generationally to an apex,” said Travis Dorsch, the founding director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University.
“It’s been ready to combust for some time, and I think we’re there,” he said.
Championship on the Line
By the time of the February confrontation, Anthony, who was a senior at St. John Vianney School in Colonia, N.J., was days away from competing for his fourth state championship wrestling title and had already committed to Cornell University.
But at the District 25 wrestling tournament on Feb. 22, officers responded to “a physical altercation,” according to two complaints filed in Collingswood Municipal Court.
The complaints said that Mr. Knox entered a section of the bleachers designated for an opposing team and confronted spectators from West Deptford, N.J., a town just south of Philadelphia. “Multiple parties,” including Mr. Knox and another man, ended up on the gym floor. The other man, who could not be reached for comment, “subsequently fell to the floor,” according to one of the complaints, and Mr. Knox “attempted to kick/stomp him numerous times.”
In a separate complaint, the police said that Anthony went into the same section of the bleachers and punched a juvenile “about the face and head repeatedly,” resulting in bruising and pain to the right temple. Officers “observed the defendant striking the victim.”
Both Knox men were handcuffed by the police. Anthony was charged six days later.
His chances at another wrestling title were thrown into question. The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association disqualified Anthony from the state championship tournament on March 8 for violating sportsmanship rules.
Anthony had his supporters. After the brawl, Cornell’s wrestling coach, Mike Grey, told NJ.com that Anthony would not lose his spot on the university team.
In an interview, Mr. Knox said that students and parents had “been crossing the line” with Anthony for years, especially as he became more successful. What happened at the district meet in February could have been prevented, Mr. Knox said, adding that the athletic association should have protected his family.
Instead, Mr. Knox said, “they let these guys curse at my wife, and all of a sudden I’m the bad guy?”
A State’s Wrestling Talent Soars
To say New Jersey takes wrestling seriously is an understatement.
High school wrestling in the state has produced generation-defining talent. Anthony was competing to become the fifth four-time state champion in the past two decades. New Jersey is a wrestling powerhouse as one of only three states that have a single championship title for all weight classes. Wrestling competitions in the state also include public and private schools.
“It makes it tougher,” said Howie O’Neill, the wrestling tournament director for the state athletic association. “When you stand on the podium, you are the best.”
A big reason wrestling in New Jersey has become more competitive is that many wrestlers train at clubs after school, on weekends and throughout the summer. Mr. Knox, a former mixed martial artist, runs a youth wrestling club. His son is a member.
Participating in clubs can cost parents $10,000 to $20,000 a year for tournaments, travel and coaching. With that investment comes increased expectations. The drive to succeed in the sport has been supercharged by the professionalization of college athletes and the potential for immediate paydays in the form of name, image and likeness — or N.I.L. — deals, which are more common in other sports.
“The purity of the sport is no longer present because things have become so commercialized,” said Ernie Monaco Sr., a longtime wrestling coach and club owner in Warren, N.J. “There used to be no vehicles to make money. It was an extremely hard thing to do. People made these sacrifices and worked their butts off and put everything they had into it.”
‘All the Wood Was on the Fire’
Geography can amplify the tension in the stands because wrestling teams don’t necessarily compete against the next town over. The wrestling power schools, as the top athletic schools are known, are largely parochial and concentrated in northern New Jersey.
The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the state’s athletic body, divvies the power schools up among regional districts to level the playing field.
But experts, athletes and coaches say that the arrangement stokes a rivalry between public and private schools, a clash that can sometimes bubble over among fans. In the Knox family’s case, Anthony’s school had traveled two hours on Feb. 22 to compete in southern New Jersey, where his reputation as one of the state’s top wrestlers had made him a target.
“They were out of their geographic area,” said Bryan Stoll, the varsity wrestling coach for Delbarton, a private school that was not in the tournament. “That obviously was the initial starting point. All the wood was on the fire before they even walked in the gym.”
Anthony’s mother, Debra Knox, said in an affidavit that her son “entered the stands not to initiate an altercation, but to defend himself and his family against an aggressive mob that should have been removed long before tensions escalated.”
The father of another competitor, a retired police sergeant, supported the Knoxes’ account in his own affidavit.
Anthony’s parents declined to make him available for an interview. The athletic association has stood by its decision to revoke his participation. Brian Gismondi, the schools superintendent in West Deptford Township, told local news organizations that an investigation had not found any evidence of name-calling or confirmation of the Knoxes’ account.
Others who were involved in the altercation, and institutions with interest in the outcome, have said little about it publicly. Cornell University declined to comment. School and athletic officials from West Deptford did not respond to requests for comment, nor did the family involved in the altercation with Mr. Knox. Timothy Higgins, the municipal prosecutor for Collingswood, did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the Collingswood Police Department.
On March 5, three days before the state championship, a court ruling reinstated Anthony for the tournament. After he won his fourth state title, he posed for photos with his family and a family lawyer.
Mr. Knox and Anthony each pleaded not guilty to a single count of simple assault in a virtual hearing on May 14. A judge set a “lengthy postponement” in the case until Sept. 10, citing “voluminous discovery,” including audio and visual documents.
Mr. Knox said in the affidavit that he deeply regretted the Feb. 22 incident.
“If I had a chance to go back, I would have likely handled the situation differently,” he wrote, “but I was acting out of concern for the safety of my family and wrestlers present.”
Parents See ‘a Mirror of Themselves’
Jordan Burroughs, a former wrestler and Olympic gold medalist who grew up competing in South Jersey, said parental involvement hasn’t changed but “we are being more exposed to it,” in large part because of social media.
“Everyone feels like they lay claim in ownership to their children’s progression and their development,” said Mr. Burroughs, who now runs an academy in South Jersey where he trains one of his sons. “It’s a product. People are trying to buy success for their kids.”
Christopher N. La Lima, a child and adolescent psychologist at NYU Langone Health, said that high school athletes and their parents feel different pressures. The adults see “a mirror of themselves” facing opponents on the mat, while the students want to please their parents and impress their friends.
Mr. Burroughs, who has been wrestling since he was 6, was drawn to the sport because of World Wrestling Entertainment. These days, he finds his athletes come to it because of mixed martial arts and jujitsu.
But wrestling is the only sanctioned combat sport for interscholastic athletes.
“There’s an element of a real blue-collar, working-class pedigree in wrestling so it’s heavily identifiable to a lot of people,” Mr. Burroughs said. “It’s a fight with rules.”
Mr. Burroughs said that he did not condone the Knoxes’ behavior. But he said he understood it, having experienced wrath from the bleachers.
His message to the families — and mainly the parents — in his program: Do not engage with opposing fans.
“I think the goal for us is to always be beyond reproach,” he said. “And that’s not easy, especially when you’re successful.”
Mr. Knox said Anthony had moved on from the February incident. In April, Anthony won the under-20 championship for his weight class at the U.S. Open in Las Vegas. His next stop is trials for the world championship in Bulgaria, and he’s already training at Cornell, where “he’s living his best life,” Mr. Knox said. A criminal case remains open in municipal court.
“The thing about Anthony is, and one of the reasons he’s able to compete so well, is mentally he can disconnect from reality,” Mr. Knox added.
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
Remy Tumin is a reporter for The Times covering breaking news and other topics.
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