Dumb Athletic Directors.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

First of all, Rut, my check to you is in the mail and you should receive it Monday. Second, I want to apologize in advance for this long post.

Third. There are a number of officials who think that:

1) The OhioHSAA and MichiganHSAA policies requiring the official/umpire to make contact with a school adminstrator the next school day is not a good idea. I have been an OhioHSAA registered official since 1971 and a MichiganHSAA registered official since 1984. I was registered by the FloridaHSAA from 1973 to 1977, and a member of the Southern Calif. Bkb. Off. Assn. from 1982 to 1984.

While in Florida and California I had the undesireable duty of filing game reports for player ejections. During those years neither the FloridaHSAA nor the California Interscholatic Federation had no formal game report form to complete. I can not remember if (and I do not feel like climbing up into the attic to rummage through forty year old files; those who read the Basketball Forum will understand that comment) contacting a school adminstrator was a requirement in those days (I do not think it was.). But I do know that game reports at that time were a he said/she said affair. Nothing good ever game of them because StateHSAA did not have penalties in place for ejections.

The same situation that was in Florida and California was in place in Ohio and Michigan until the early 90's (that's 1990's for the basketball guys reading this post). It was about that time that the OhioHSAA and MichiganHSAA adopted penalties for ejections and both orginzations adopted almost identical game report forms and ejection protocols. The forms were in triplicate with one copy going to the State, one copy to the school, and one copy to the official. The school also received a form to complete. It allowed for a very limited response. And that response was practically dictated to them by the State. The response had to state that the school had taken the appropriate punitave steps as required the StateHSAA Rules and Regulations. The StateHSAA would not accept and he said/she said response from the school. I can only speculate, that Ohio and Michigan requirment of the official notifying the school is so that the school principal, who may not have been at the athletic event and therefore may not know yet of the ejection will be notified in a timely manner and that he will be receiving a game report.

In recent years both Ohio and Michigan has gone to an online reporting system, but still require the phone call to the school administor. Michigan's is 100% online, and Ohio's is psuedo online (no need to explain because it is not germain to the discussion).

2) I did not handle the AD appropriately. Rut and others, as well as myself, have stated that game reports are to be short, succinct (something I am not very often, ), and sweet. Meaning the report needs to be on point and nothing else. That also applies to the notification of the administrator.

Everybody here knows that I can go on flights of fancy and hyperbole and very capable of making a short story long (case in point: this post, ). Every official has his own tolerance for profanity, the F-bomb, the N-word, taunting, and other unsportsmanlike conduct. That tolerance is also determined by the sport being officiated because one sport's penalities for such conduct can not easily be applied to another sport's penalities for such conduct.

Those who post on the Basketball Forum know my position on profanity, the F-bomb, the N-word, taunting, and other unsportsmanlike conduct. I guess one could describe me as old school (Note to Basketball Forum readers: Not that Old School.). I was raised to compete in a way that one could play hard, have emmotion, repsect your opponent, and still conduct onself as a lady or gentleman on the field of competition. Sadly, there are certain elements within the world of sport who find that philosophy quaint to say the least.

I believe that I handled my conversation correctly and I am not alone in this position. That is, a sports official's official comments should be succinct and to the point. They should be germain to the subject being discussed and nothing more. There is a good reason for this position: Silence can not be misquoted and is very difficult to be quoted out of context.

I think I have said enough for a while.

MTD, Sr.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by ozzy6900

And what part of f-bomb don't you and the AD understand? It's a JV game which is an extension of the classroom, so the f-bomb is not allowed nor tolerated. You want to keep splitting hairs about this, Rich?

I am not getting this splitting of hairs either. We throw people out in baseball (or it is advocated) all the time in other areas of baseball, but we want warnings for players using the most unacceptable words? Really?

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

First of all, Rut, my check to you is in the mail and you should receive it Monday.

I will send you the wire transfer number as that might come quicker than a check (do not get me started!!! ).

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

Everybody here knows that I can go on flights of fancy and hyperbole and very capable of making a short story long (case in point: this post, ). Every official has his own tolerance for profanity, the F-bomb, the N-word, taunting, and other unsportsmanlike conduct. That tolerance is also determined by the sport being officiated because one sport's penalities for such conduct can not easily be applied to another sport's penalities for such conduct.

Those who post on the Basketball Forum know my position on profanity, the F-bomb, the N-word, taunting, and other unsportsmanlike conduct. I guess one could describe me as old school (Note to Basketball Forum readers: Not that Old School.). I was raised to compete in a way that one could play hard, have emmotion, repsect your opponent, and still conduct onself as a lady or gentleman on the field of competition. Sadly, there are certain elements within the world of sport who find that philosophy quaint to say the least.

And in baseball unlike even basketball or football, there are no penalties that can be used before an ejection. With that being said, I know many officials in basketball and football that would eject anyone use for the use of these words listed above without much exception. I am not sure I agree with that personally, but I know those that have no exceptions and that is their right to have those standards. I do not hold onto that position only because if I ejected a player for that I would have to eject everyone soon for similar language. And just like anything in life context matters to me. It is different if you are saying something to yourself for making a bad play and no one can hear you, then saying something to me as an official or to an opponent.

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

I believe that I handled my conversation correctly and I am not alone in this position. That is, a sports official's official comments should be succinct and to the point. They should be germain to the subject being discussed and nothing more. There is a good reason for this position: Silence can not be misquoted and is very difficult to be quoted out of context.

I think I have said enough for a while.

MTD, Sr.

And this is another reason that many states do not require such conversation with anyone at the school. When we have an ejection in Illinois, all we do is file what is called a Special Report. This is done online and the information is sent directly to the AD and Principal of that school. We are not to contact the school or the IHSA about the result or punishment. The same would go if someone filed a Special Report on us. We do not contact the school or official to get clarification. Nothing good can come out of that. If the IHSA wants to talk to us, they can contact us for clarification. But those reports should be specific and to the point. No editorializing what we think or why we think the events took place. We give the exact words and the rules that apply and some facts about when it took place in the game.

Peace