A soccer ball. (Phil Ashley)

(JTA) – A high school championship soccer game between a Miami Jewish day school and a local Catholic school ended with an ugly on-field brawl and at least one injury, along with reports of the Catholic students possibly having uttered antisemitic slurs.

Videos from the incident circulated online, elicited competing accounts about what happened and the extent to which antisemitism played a role.

The fight Wednesday night was between Scheck Hillel Community School students and those at Archbishop Coleman Carroll High School. Scheck Hillel parents told local news outlets that students at Archbishop Coleman Carroll had used antisemitic slurs, including “Hitler was right.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

In a joint statement released to parents Thursday, Scheck Hillel and the Archdiocese of Miami acknowledged there had been “a physical altercation” between the two schools following the game, which Scheck Hillel lost. The statement also said, “It is concerning that students from Archbishop Coleman Carroll may have made antisemitic comments or gestures at the outset of the incident, although both schools are still completing their initial investigation.”

Spectators rushed the field following the initial comments, getting into an altercation with players, and a spectator was injured and received medical attention, the statement said. The schools also alerted the Florida High School Athletic Association.

The schools’ official account differs somewhat from one posted online by Jewish Breaking News, a popular Instagram page with more than 120,000 followers. A video the page shared showed part of the fight, accompanied by unverified claims that the Catholic students had kicked a Jewish student with their cleats, leading to hospitalization, while also attacking a Scheck Hillel administrator.

Another witness told the Miami Herald that a Jewish student suffered a concussion, but the statement from the schools only confirmed one spectator injury. 

Scheck Hillel’s initial post about the game to social media made no mention of the fight. Instead, the school congratulated its players “on an amazing 2023 soccer season.”

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re in the middle of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 22.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount