ELLSWORTH, Wis. — A Maiden Rock, Wis., teenager was charged with a felony after a high school dodgeball game allegedly turned violent.
Pierce County prosecutors charged 18-year-old Jacob Sigler with one count of substantial battery in connection with the Oct. 11 incident at Ellsworth High School. A criminal complaint filed Dec. 15 alleges he slugged another student in the head after an intense volley of dodgeballs.
Court records state Sigler’s first court appearance is Feb. 3.
According to the complaint, the student who was slugged and his mother reported the incident to police in Ellsworth, which is southwest of River Falls. The mother told police that a CT scan revealed that the boy, who was 16 at the time, had suffered a facial fracture.
The slugged student said he and Sigler were playing dodgeball during gym class. Sigler and three other boys were throwing balls at him, so he hurled a ball back at Sigler.
Sigler retrieved a couple of balls and threw them at him, the slugged boy said, but “when Jacob ran out of balls, Jacob closed his fist and punched (the him) in the face.” He said he was knocked to the ground by the punch. One of the other boys confronted Sigler after the punch, the slugged boy said.
The two students hadn’t been at odds in the past, the slugged boy said, and they didn’t exchange words with each other when they went to the principal’s office afterward.
Police interviewed Sigler after talking with the injured boy and his mother. He said the preceding dodgeball volleys were “a friendly fight, just a competitive game of dodgeball.” He said he was struck from about 2 or 3 feet away in the face when he wasn’t looking by a ball thrown by the other boy, which he thought was excessive.
From there, the ball-tossing got “really heated,” the complaint states, as the two students closed in on each other. Sigler said he thought the other boy was about to tackle him.
“Then, I punched him,” Sigler told police.
He also said he and the other boy weren’t at odds before the punch.
“I don’t have a problem with him now,” Sigler told police. “Just at that moment, I had a problem with him.”