Parkway sanctioned for handcuffing opponent's coach prior to playoff game
By: Nancy Cook
Updated: November 29, 2012
The Louisiana High School Athletic Association today came down hard on Parkway High School, after a South Louisiana high school football coach was handcuffed and led off the field prior to a playoff game.
Parkway was sanctioned following a 'sportsmanship hearing at the LHSAA today in Baton Rouge.
NBC 6 News Sports Director Brandon Dunn will bring details of this breaking story at 6 p.m.
The hearing today was held after a Nov. 9 incident prior to the Bi-district football playoff between Live Oak High School and Parkway High School
Barry Musemeche, head football coach at Live Oak High School, was leading his team in warm-up exercises prior to the game when Parkway Principal, Dr. Nichole Bourgeois, came onto the field with law-enforcement officers, one of whom she instructed to put handcuffs on Musemeche and take him off the field.
Musemeche filed a lawsuit for damages on Nov. 21 in East Baton Rouge Parish against Bourgeois, individually and as principal of Parkway; the Bossier Parish School Board; and the City of Bossier. However, as of Nov. 28, none of the entities listed in the lawsuit had been served.
According to the lawsuit, on the schedule, the Live Oak team was given 10 minutes to warm up prior to the 7 p.m. kickoff. The time allotted was from 6:25-6:35 p.m.
Although the suit says Live Oak administrators asked Bourgeois to add five minutes to halftime so the Live Oak band could perform, she refused; the band was given 10 minutes - from 6:35 to 6:45 p.m. - to perform.
The Live Oak band director, Brian Feigles, however, gave the band's allotted time to the football team, so Musemache kept his team on the field after his timeslot had concluded and the band's begun.
In the suit, Musemeche claims his team stayed on the field warming up prior to the game in the 6:35-6:45 timeslot allotted to Live Oak's band, and cleared it with Parkway's head coach.
But Bourgeois was having none of it, and, accompanied by a Bossier deputy, went out on the field and "demanded that (Musemeche) leave the field immediately." When he didn't, the suit alleges, she told the officer, "cuff him, get him off the field, cuff him."
This was done in front of his football team, cheerleaders, fellow coaches, school administrations and spectators, the suit says. Minutes later, Musmeche said those cuffs were removed and he was told he was to be re-cuffed and taken to the Bossier City jail.
When he was re-cuffed, the coach claims he was injured and suffered bleeding, cuts bruising and numbness.
A few moments later, he said, Bourgeois told officers she was not going to press charges and Musmeche was released just prior to the game and was with his team for kickoff.
Live Oak High School is located in Watson, LA, a Livingston Parish town with a population of around 92,000. The football team and coaches, along with Live Oak students, teachers, parents and supporters, spent more than five hours traveling the approximately 260-mile trip to Parkway to play in the game.
