[sadstripes]

Greetings,
I am sending you this information in the hopes of getting some resolution and also to let others know of my up hill battle to reclaim my tarnished name.

My name is Frank Williams Jr; I reside in the city of Mahtomedi, Mn. I am a youth basketball official PT here in the Twin Cities. I work at all levels from grade school to High school. I also work a lot of AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) games, mostly boys. I have been working for the Minnesota chapter of AAU thru a couple of assigners for about 5yrs. This is considered independent contract employment. There is a certication process recommended, but not required. I was informed on the 18th of May 2002 that my services as an official were no longer needed due to an “Incident Report” that was filed with their office concerning the quality of my officiating.

As an official in most cases during the course of a game someone is not going to agree with you. Well, about 2yrs ago I was calling an AAU game (15-16yr olds) Minn. Magic vs. Hopkins. The Magic team had a player that was constantly talking and taunting the opposing players. Early in the game he as well as his coaches were warned twice that this behavior must cease. However he did not. Early in the 4th quarter this player was called for a foul, and removed from the game by his coach. Upon leaving the game he engages in a loud, vulgar, and potentially hostile conversation with the timekeeper & scorekeeper. At this time he was assessed a technical foul. His coaches did not agree and approached me yelling, “You can’t do that, Stop the game!” I proceeded to inform them I thought this was appropriate and that the game was going to continue. One of the coaches (John Sherman) then left the court only to return approx 5 minutes later with the site director of the tournament. My partner and I discussed the matter with him and agreed it was appropriate. After the game a Hopkins parent came over to me and thanked my partner and me for a good job we had done. He went on to say he was glad we held our ground with John Sherman, he did not like him and that his son would never play for John or any of his Magic teams. He described John Sherman as too powerful, one whom plays favorites and a jerk. I had never spoken to John prior to this game, but had seen him lots of times. And that was not the first Magic game I had worked.

The following day at a different site (Park HS) I did a difficult game where one of the teams was winning by more than 20pts in the first half and the other team was very frustrated. In fact they where committing some very flagrant fouls and being overly rough. There were several technical and flagrant fouls called by (Clarence Corker) my partner and myself. Late in the 4th quarter one of the losing players tried to undercut a player attempting a dunk. At this point I deemed the game unsafe to finish and ended the game. As I was leaving the gym for refreshment, a parent whom was not in my direct path became verbally abusive to me. My response was to inform him he should leave the gym because the game was over. He then threatened to assault me. I admit I became bothered by this and invited him to go outside. I assumed he would not come and I was right, infact I didn’t go outside either I went directly to the site director (Rich Penick) to inform him of the problem. I did see him speaking to the parent later, but was not told what was said.

The following day at the same site, before beginning the last of 4 games I noticed John Sherman was again coach of an entirely different Magic team. He then said hold on and left the gym. Approx 1 minute later he returns with my assigner (Melvin Freeman) requesting me to move to another gym, of which I did even thou I would prefer to work on a wooden court versus a rubber floor. I did however ask Melvin why? He said he was not sure but would ask the site director (Rich Penick). Rich told me that because I had a problem with a parent yesterday I needed to be moved. I then asked him what does that have to do with John Sherman. He just smiled. I then stated to him in a very straightforward manner that I did not think it was fair for a coach to be able to dictate who can and can not officiate his games. I think Rich was confused at this time with the difference between anger and blatant honesty. He became upset and told Melvin to send me home. Melvin assured me it was OK, would look into it and even said he was going to pay me for the final game.

The following Monday I spoke with the President of the MYAS Minnesota Youth Athletic Services (Dan Klinkhammer). They are contracted by the MN AAU chapter to administrate their programs. He assured me there would not be a problem and that they deal with similar issues almost every Monday. I continued to work games that year and last year without any other problems. Infact this year I had a brief conversation with Rich Penick at a Shakopee tournament and he did not indicate to me there was anything wrong. On April 27th I was working at Edina HS and John Sherman was present. During the last game of the evening with MN. Magic vs. ??? One of the Magic players was making statements to my partner Bill Clancey. He warned him twice to stop, later in the game he cursed out loud about a call I made and I called a Technical foul. He then began a tirade at center court yelling, “What did I say? What did I say? “. Bill at this time accessed him with his second technical foul, automatic game ejection. Kevin Wilson of MYAS witnessed all this. Kevin also had to make the player leave the gym.

The next week Jim Herder who is also an assigner was notified of the decision to ban me from working any Boys Basketball for AAU. I then spoke to Buddy Hemric who is MYAS Associate Director in charge of these matters and he initially said he would give me the benefit of a doubt and allow me to continue to work until he could look into the matter, because there was no paperwork to support the decision. He did state that John Sherman and Rich Penick brought the matter to his attention. But, about a week later he decided to ban me. I wasn’t even notified until asked to leave a tournament at Hopkins on May 18th. I was told I could appeal the decision if I put it in writing, which I did. The first meeting had to be rescheduled because I was in Florida at that time. The second meeting was scheduled for Wed. June 12th at 5pm.

This was an appeal meeting of myself and 4 MYAS employees and 4 MN AAU Executive Committee members:

Buddy Hemric Associate Director / MYAS
Rich Penick Program Director / MYAS
Kevin Wilson Program Director / MYAS
Jeremy Innes Program Coordinator / MYAS
Willie Brazil MN AAU Boys BB Executive Committee Member? / MYAS?
Matt Ricker MN AAU Boys BB Executive Committee President
John Sherman MN AAU Boys BB Executive Committee Member / MN Magic President /
MN AAU Boys BB Founder?

Just so you know what I was up against and how unfair this meeting was, you have to take into consideration I actually didn’t get a copy of any incident report until 1 day before the meeting. Based on what Buddy had told me earlier there was no report. Also, when I did ask for a report on Thursday June 7th, ‘02, Buddy said he had to check to see if he could even send it to me because he had never did this before. The following Tuesday 2 reports were faxed, one written by John Sherman dated May 7th of 2002 and one by Matt Ricker dated May 13th of 2002. Both reports falsely portray me as a totally out of control official who’s calls are mostly wrong, calls to many technical fouls and goes into the stands after fans and parents. Keep in mind the reports only talk about alleged problems at games MN Magic teams were involved in. Also, both reports at times refer to the same incidents but are different stories. Why did John and Matt wait 2 years to write them? There is no other report that exist that I know of written by any other coaches, parents, or anyone for that matter.

I found myself fighting a steep up hill battle to defend myself in front of an obviously bias group handpicked by Matt Ricker himself. Even before the meeting got started I requested a different unbiased meeting of my peers. I was told that was not going to happen.

During the meeting I did my best to explain my actions in particular incidents that they asked about. I even went so far as to say I would have brought witnesses or letters if I had only known of the actual allegations more than a day out. It was made very clear to me that there is a concern about the amount of money that is paid by teams to participate in this program and that it should be a concern for me also. At one point Willie Brazil stated I had not convinced him simply because he did not hear me say anything apologetic about the incidents. I told Willie, If I don’t ever work another AAU game I am just blessed to be breathing, but I will not apologize for something I feel I didn’t do. And I went on to say to John Sherman that several people I had discussed this matter with recently also thought he was too powerful and did not agree with how he has his hand in everything. I also said that most of what was written was twisted and fabricated. We discussed these matters for about 45 minutes, at that time I was told they had to meet with someone else and I would have a week to present any other info to them before a decision was made. I was also told that most of the scoresheets used are still available, still not sure if that meant I would have access.

On June 19th I sent a request to Buddy Hemric for more time to investigate these accusations. I contacted him on Friday the 21st he stated to me he had left a message for Matt Ricker, but had not received a return call yet. The following week on Thursday the 27th and Friday the 28th I left a message for Buddy to call me with a update. As of 3:00pm I had not even received a courtesy call from anyone about what is going on or if any decision has been made. I also want information on how to gain access to game scoresheets that are on file I was told. I have since contacted Joe Crawford at AAU headquarters in Orlando, only to be informed that since I was not a AAU member I am clasified as an employee of the assigners, and not even an employee of MYAS. I would have no recourse to follow beyond the commitee I am dealing with now. He did tell that he would contact the commitee members here to find out all he could about the situation. But I have yet to hear anything from anyone as of July 5th.

Now I am not sure what to do at this point but I truly believe that I have been a victim of some kind of blackball conspiracy because John Sherman didn’t get his way 2 years ago. I truly love to officiate the game, been doing it almost 15 yrs and consider this as the best part time job in the world. But, if I have to coddle to anyone so I may continue working THAT”S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!! I really was disappointed that not one of the Individuals in the room during the appeal meeting mentioned what’s best for the youth in this program. How important is teaching them about fairness, respect, sportsmanship and a good work ethic?

I have always been a champion for more respect for officials, we are people to. I have been vocal about the lack of protection afforded to officials. In fact one of the big rules officials like to see enforced is in the event a coach is ejected from a game, they are not allowed to return to the bench the remainder of the tournament over the weekend. I have seen a number of occasions where coaches and parents are allowed to return anyway. Especially if they are plugged into any governing committee. For example: In 2001 Matt Ricker, who is currently on the Boys AAU basketball executive committee was ejected by my partner in a Friday night game for being verbally abusive at Eastview HS in Eagan only to return the following day to coach. I have heard several of my partners also state they have had problems with certain coaches who are somewhat immune to rules including Matt R. and John S.

Something has to been done, not only to protect my integrity but also to assess how many others have been treated in this degrading manner. I am not seeking anything I don’t deserve. I have not been able to earn monies for approx. 7 weeks recently. On the average worth about $200 per weekend, for an estimated total of $1400.