Champion NJ wrestler joined dad fighting hecklers, now suing over disqualification

✅ Anthony Knox Jr. was disqualified by the NJSIAA after a bleecher-clearing brawl

✅ The decision keeps him from trying to win fourth championship

✅ Knox said he was defending his family from hecklers

UPDATE: Judge saves wrestler from career-ending ban

A three-time champion high school wrestler is in court, seeking a judge to intervene after the state athletics authority disqualified him from the season after a brawl involving him and his father.

A judge's decision could come by Friday morning.

NJSIAA executive director Colleen Maguire disqualified  Anthony Knox Jr., a St. Vianney High School senior who is one of the top-ranked wrestlers in the country in his weight class, after he became involved in a fight in the stands along with his father. Knox is seeking to become only the fifth four-time state champion.

In a statement Tuesday night on his Instagram account, Knox said he respects the NJSIAA’s decision to suspend him from future meets but said his family is “reviewing our options to determine the best course of action moving forward."

That action was a lawsuit against the NJSIAA and Collingswood High School, which hosted the tournament. The lawsuit contends that Knox’s family and SJV athletes were given the finger and heckled by West Deptford High School fans for an hour, which Collingswood High School officials did nothing about. His father, Anthony Sr., fell after being assaulted in the stands, according to the suit.

The lawsuit states that Anthony Jr. had already competed and was sitting in the stands before and after his match. Because there was no physical bench on the sidelines, the NJSIAA should not have faulted the athlete for leaving the bench, his lawyers argued.

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Warning: Video contains violence and profanity

Pushing the pause button

Knox's attorney, Patrick J. Jennings, said Thursday in Superior Court in Trenton that McGuire's decision denied him due process and fundamental fairness and everything he has worked for as a student athlete.

"Everything Mr. Knox worked for, all the blood,  all the sweat, all the tears, all the clubs, all the matches, the daily grind, it is all at stake here today," Jennings told Judge Patrick Bartels.

He said that the NJSIAA did not share videos and statements used in its investigation.

"The pause button can be hit and that's what we ask of this court today," Jennings said, adding that Knox would spend the rest of his life wondering if he would have won the fourth championship.

"It is not to be determined by Colleen McGuire in a backroom reviewing information only she has."

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NJSIAA: Tough love penalty

NJSIAA attorney Robert Levy took a hard line and said Knox brought the penalty on himself with his behavior, which he said included leaving the St. Vianney bench area and joining a fight in the stands where he attempted to assault someone, according to Levy.

"The essential facts that were found by Colleen McGuire are undisputed and therefore the mandatory penalty of a two-match suspension is unavoidably required," Levy said. "This is a case of tough love which is being imposed upon a student athlete and any harm he is alleged to have received is a result of his own conduct which is undisputed."

Bartels said he would decide on the disqualification by late Thursday or Friday morning. If allowed to compete, Knox's next match would be late Friday afternoon at Lacey High School.

Collingswood police chief Kevin J. Carey said no arrests have been made in connection with the fight but the investigation with the Camden County Prosecutor's Office is ongoing.

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