12 minute read
THE NEWS
N.J. Wrestling Referee Sues Over Suspension
ATLANTIC COUNTY, N.J. — Suspended high school wrestling referee Alan Maloney filed a civil lawsuit against the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) in Atlantic County Superior Court on Dec. 18, 2020.
Buena Regional High School head wrestling coach George Maxwell and athletic director David Albertson were named as defendants in the lawsuit along with former NJSIAA executive director Larry White and NJSIAA assistant director Anthony Maselli. Vincent Smith and Mary Liz Ivins, president and vice president, respectively, of an NJSIAA task force, and David Frasier, NJSIAA Controversies Committee chair, were also named in the suit.
The lawsuit surrounds a Dec. 19, 2018, dual meet between Buena and Oakcrest high schools at which Buena wrestler Andrew Johnson had his hair cut after being told his hair covering was illegal. According to NFHS wrestling rules in 201819, hair coverings were required to be attached to the wrestler’s head gear — a rule change made in 2014. Maloney ruled that Johnson “had braids or twists that pursuant to the published and known rules required a legal hair cover,” according to an amended complaint filed on Dec. 30, 2020. The dispute surrounds whether Johnson was required to wear a hair covering and whether his hair was in its “natural state.” If not in its natural state, the rules at the time required a hair covering.
Video of an athletic trainer cutting Johnson’s hair went viral on Twitter “being manipulated and misconstrued as a national race issue,” according to the complaint.
For the following season, the NFHS deleted rules regarding the “natural state” and length of a wrestler’s hair.
Fallout from the controversy led the NJSIAA to suspend Maloney and he contends the suspension ended up “… fueling the erroneous reports in the media that the plaintiff was racially motivated by his rules enforcement …” Maloney claims the NJSIAA violated its own handbook when he was not given the opportunity to present his case at “any due process hearing or trial,” according to the complaint.
According to a Memorandum of Agreement between the NJSIAA and New Jersey Division on Civil Rights signed by White and Rachel Wainer Apter, the division’s director, the NJSIAA agreed in September 2019 to suspend Maloney for the entirety of the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons and require him to undergo implicit bias training and additional rules education before any future reinstatement. The agreement also requires all high school sports
THE WIRE
See “Suspension” p.11
NFL Hires First Black Female Official
NEW YORK — Maia Chaka, a product of the NFL’s Officiating Development Program, has been hired to the NFL officiating staff, the league announced March 5. Chaka is the first Black woman official named to the staff.
“I am honored to be selected as an NFL official,” Chaka said in a news release. “But this moment is bigger than a personal accomplishment. It is an accomplishment for all women, my community, and my culture.”
Chaka, 38, is the second woman to be hired as an onfield official. Sarah Thomas joined the staff in 2015. Four females — Desiree Abrams, Sebrina Brunson, Artenzia Young-Seigler and Denise Crudup — are replay assistants. Replay official Terri Valenti recently announced her retirement. Appearing on the “Today” show, Appearing on the “Today” show, Chaka said she Chaka said she received a phone received a phone call March 1 call March 1 from Wayne from Wayne Mackie, the NFL Mackie, the NFL vice president vice president of officiating of officiating evaluation and evaluation and development. development. Since Mackie has Since Mackie has been a mentor to been a mentor to
See “Chaka” p.10
Referee Seeks Assault Charges After Push
A 44-year-old Nebraska referee fi led a police report alleging assault after a high school student shoved him in the back during a game and sent him into a sideline chair, leaving him with a sore neck and abrasions to his right knee and elbow. The incident occurred during a JV game at Northwest High School in Omaha, Neb., on Feb. 13. Video of the incident showed the player had a path past the referee, but ran into him instead. The referee was not named in news reports and the player was not identifi ed because he is a juvenile. The police report was referred to juvenile court.
Premier League Referee Received Death Threats
Premier League referee Mike Dean received death threats after his decision to send off West Ham’s Tomas Soucek, for what Dean ruled was an elbow deliberately thrown at another player during a Feb. 6 match against Fulham. Dean initially waved play on, but consulted a pitchside monitor at the urging of his video assistant referee and then issued a red card. Dean received online threats to himself and his family in the wake of the call. Days later, West Ham appealed the red card and Premier League offi cials overturned the call, ruling it was accidental contact and that Soucek would not have to serve a three-game suspension. In the wake of the threats, Dean opted not to offi ciate any games the following weekend, but returned to offi ciate a match on Feb. 14.
Referee Suspended for Assaulting Crewmate
The Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) suspended referee Tevin Gibson following a postgame locker-
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Women’s college basketball referee Angie Enlund is taken off the floor on a stretcher after being inadvertently knocked to the floor by a player at a Feb. 24 game.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Women’s college basketball referee Angie Enlund was taken to the hospital after being knocked to the floor by a player shortly after the buzzer in a Feb. 24 game between Rutgers and Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich.
According to published reports, Rutgers’ Tekia Mack inadvertently ran into Enlund while heading back to the bench. Enlund was tended to on the floor for several minutes before medical staff placed her on a stretcher and transported her to the hospital.
A Michigan State spokesperson said Enlund was kept overnight with a concussion, according to Yahoo Sports. Enlund did not have any fractures and was responsive and communicating before being taken to the hospital.
“I know she was unconscious for a period of time,” Michigan State coach Suzy Merchant said in the online news conference after the game. “They took her in an ambulance, but it’s a very scary and serious thing. She hit very, very hard. She hit her head really hard.”
Merchant said Mack was looking toward the Michigan State players as she was headed back to her bench and ran into Enlund.
“It was just an unfortunate collision at half court,” Rutgers women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer said in a postgame news conference. “I think that Tekia also had a jaw that’s been messed up, but she’ll be OK. And we’re grateful and we’re praying — and we did pray — that Angie was going to be OK.”
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Chaka
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Chaka over the years, she thought the call was social in nature. Instead, Mackie gave Chaka the good news.
Chaka, a resident of Virginia Beach, Va., began officiating in 2006 and moved up to college football in 2013. She worked in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, Conference USA and the Pac-12. She earned three bowl assignments — the Fight Hunger Bowl in 2013, the Hawaii Bowl in 2015 and the Camelia Bowl in 2016. She also worked the Senior Bowl this past January.
A graduate of Norfolk State University, Chaka earned her bachelor’s in education in 2006. She is a health and physical education teacher in the Virginia Beach public school system.
In 2014, Chaka was selected for the NFL’s Officiating Development Program, which identifies top collegiate officiating talent to expose them to some of the same experiences as NFL officials, working to determine if they have the ability to succeed as an NFL official.
“Maia’s years of hard work, dedication and perseverance — including as part of the NFL Officiating Development Program — have earned her a position as an NFL official,” said Troy Vincent Sr., NFL executive vice president of football operations, in a news release.
room altercation with a fellow official over a disagreement about a call. Police in Joplin, Mo., issued Gibson a citation for misdemeanor assault for the Feb. 4 incident at McAuley Catholic High School. Gibson can appeal his suspension in a process that’s overseen by the MSHSAA Board of Directors, MSHSAA Communications Director Jason West told KSNTV.
Mask Use Leads to Apology Demand
Proper mask usage took center stage in late February during the Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA) state wrestling tournament — but not for the reason one might think. The parents of deaf wrestler Paul Ruff, of Gering High School, and advocates for the hearing impaired demanded an apology from the NSAA and a match official and a rematch after the official chose not to lower his pandemic-mandated mask to relay instructions to Ruff. Their contention is that because Ruff could not read the official’s lips, he did not realize he was violating warnings issued by the official that eventually led to a penalty point in Ruff’s loss to Paul Garcia, of Scottsbluff. The official did point to Ruff about the infraction and got a thumbs-up in reply, which the official believed meant the wrestler understood. “I think the referee did what he had to do. There was an infraction,” Jay Bellar, NSAA executive director, told WOWT-TV.
Guatemalan Soccer Player Receives Ban
A Guatemalan soccer player received a five-year ban for punching a referee in the face during a third division game in San Marcos on Feb. 28. Erick Anthony Garcia, a player for San Lorenzo Jogo Foot, was also
Jay Miner, Longtime Referee Writer, Dies
JACKSON, N.J. — Jay Miner, a longtime softball and baseball contributor to Referee, died Feb. 8 due to complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 77.
Miner wrote for Referee from the late ’70s until he suffered a heart attack in 2018. That forced him to move from his longtime home in Colonie, N.Y., to live with his daughter, Jaydene, and her family in New Jersey.
A talented athlete in high school, Miner was offered a minor league contract by the New York Yankees, but turned it down to pursue a career in drag racing. Jaydene said while still in high school, her father would take his mother’s car out after she was asleep and race down the city streets.
“Jay built and drove some of the first altered wheelbase modified street cars,” Jaydene said. “He eventually became a top fuel funny car driver with the East Coast Fuel Funny Car Circuit with a Hemi ‘Cuda and later a Challenger funny car named ‘The Trip.’”
But a near-fatal crash on Sept. 3, 1973, on a track in Jacksonville, Fla., effectively brought his racing career to a close.
“It was a night race and his car blew up going down the track,” said Jaydene, who as a youngster witnessed the event. “All I saw were flames where my father’s car was. He jumped out and was lying on the track with a burned fire suit. The car crashed into the guardrail and burned completely up.”
He then opened a tavern in Albany, N.Y., but that, too, was lost in a fire.
Miner then immersed himself in baseball and softball umpiring. Among his key assignments was a game involving the U.S. Olympic baseball team. By 1976, he was named the New York state softball assigner, instructor and rules interpreter and added those same roles in baseball a year later. In 2016, he was inducted into the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame as an umpire. Miner’s knowledge of baseball and softball rules was legendary, and he was a walking encyclopedia of baseball history.
Miner’s “Real Plays, Real Rulings” columns were popular among readers, explaining how situations in recent and past pro games would be handled using high school, college and softball codes.
Jim Berkery, president of the New York State Softball Officials Association, said Miner has “forgotten more about softball and baseball than any of the rest of us will ever know.”
Jay Miner instructed many baseball and softball umpires in New York.
Suspension continued from p.8
officials, athletic administrators, coaches and athletic trainers involved with NJSIAA member schools to undergo implicit bias training.
Attempts by Referee to reach Maloney directly and his attorney were not successful. Buena Superintendent David Cappuccio did not return a message left with his secretary and attorneys from the district did not respond to requests for comment. A request for comment to NJSIAA attorneys — also representing White, Maselli, Smith, Ivins and Frasier — was forwarded to a public relations firm representing the NJSIAA which declined comment, citing pending litigation.
The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages and injunctive relief that the NJSIAA violated Maloney’s rights and seeks to bar the NJSIAA from applying “further review or disciplinary action inconsistent with the law,” according to the complaint.
fined GTQ 1,000 (approx. $129 USD) by the league’s disciplinary committee. During the 78th minute of the match, Garcia was shown a red card following a routine foul. He was held back by teammates before walking up to the referee and punching him.
Pac-12 Reprimands Coach for Comments
The Pac-12 Conference said it reprimanded Utah men’s basketball coach Larry Krystkowiak for postgame comments about officiating following his team’s loss to Oregon on Feb. 20. Krystkowiak’s comments were related to a double-dribble call against one of his players.
NBA Fines Player for Outburst at Referee
The NBA fined Atlanta’s Trae Young $20,000 for “directing inappropriate language toward a game official” during the Hawks’ 118-117 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Feb. 10. Young complained about a no-call in the game’s final seconds.
Coach Fired for Throwing Chair at H.S. Referee
Lighthouse College Prep Academy boys’ basketball coach Nick Moore was fired after throwing a chair on the court at a referee during a Jan. 29 game at Bowman Academy in Gary, Ind. In the wake of the incident, the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) suspended the school’s athletic director for the school’s next varsity contest and all lower level contests until then, and placed the school on probation for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year. “There is simply no place in educationbased athletics for this type of poor behavior,” said IHSAA Commissioner Paul Neidig.
SOURCE: WOWT-TV, THE (U.K.) INDEPENDENT, WOWT. COM, ESPN, NBC SPORTS, PAC-12.
