The last thing you expect to happen at a high school wrestling match is to get robbed. And the last person you expect to do the stealing is a referee . . . they’re almost like cops, aren’t they? Well, it happened recently at North Penn High School in Lansdale, PA and they accused got help from–you guess it regular views of COPS–his cousin.

Here’s more from CBS 3:

Police arrested referee Marcus Smith, 37, of Horsham, Pa. and Jonathan Smith, 26, of Philadelphia. Towamencin Police were called to North Penn High School on February 7 for the reported theft of an iPod valued at $400.00. The victim identified Jonathan Smith as the suspect and police said he gave police false information relating to his identity. During the investigation, additional victims were discovered and stolen items were recovered from Marcus Smith’s car. Investigators said an active warrant from Philadelphia was discovered for Marcus Smith for an unrelated incident.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: adults are ruining youth sports. Latest case in point comes to us from Colorado Springs where the father of a teen-aged basketball player was upset over a call made by a referee during a YMCA league game, argued with the official and then punched him in the face several times.

Here’s more from KRDO (link includes video clip):

A Y-M-C-A league basketball game turns violent after a parent punches a referee in the face. The parent, Steven Vaughn, was arrested around noon Saturday for third degree assault. Police say Vaughn was upset over a call made by referee Alvin Miller and punched him in the face multiple times.

Vaughn was asked to leave the game, but a verbal fight continued in the parking lot when the game ended. Vaughn was arrested for third degree assault. Miller suffered minor injuries and didn’t require any medical attention.

Miller has been a youth basketball referee for nine years and said he has only seen an attack on a referee twice. “A few years back a parent jumped on a referee at a game at St. Mary’s,” he said. “I’ve seen it in this town where parents approach officials, pointing in their face, cussing at them, trying to start a fight.”

Miller tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 the player was given two technical cards for cussing and thrown out of the game. Police say that’s when Vaughn approached Miller and punched him several times. “He hit me a few times but I broke free and called police.”

You know you go to a tough high school when the cheerleaders are brawling after the game. Here’s more from the Ann Arbor News:

A Pioneer High School cheerleader was attacked by four other students after a basketball game, according to Ann Arbor police reports. Officers were dispatched to the University of Michigan Medical Center emergency room for a reported assault on Friday night and encountered a 16-year-old girl with a swollen lip and injured leg.

The victim told police she was walking in the parking lot with her sister after the game finished bout 9:30 p.m. and was jumped by a female student she knew attended the Roberto Clemente Student Development Center. The assailant punched her in the face and another girl forced her to the ground by her hair, reports said.

Three or four girls surrounded her and began kicking her across her body, she said. She said a male friend intervened and pulled her from the crowd. The girls ran off but have been identified and are believed to be Ann Arbor residents between the ages of 15 and 17, reports said. The cause for the assault was unknown today.