East Chicago coach Pete Trgovich blasts officiating

[Robmoz]

The regional semi final game...coach blasts officials and makes racial bias comments in his post game remarks. Your thoughts????

Here is the original story...

East Chicago coach Pete Trgovich blasts officiating after regional semifinal loss - Post-Tribune

Here is the first follow up....

Pete Trgovich resigns as boys basketball coach at E.C. Central | East Chicago Central Cardinals Prep Zone | nwitimes.com

Here is the latest follow up...

IHSAA to meet with E.C. Central on Friday concerning postgame comments | Boys Basketball | nwitimes.com

[Robmoz]

..Player comments..."I never touched him," the junior said, tears in his eyes. "They gave them the game. We couldn't do anything the whole game. They were against us. Those refs crushed our hearts."

I HOPE HE WATCHES THE VIDEO and sees himself clearly holding the other player. A little self reflection seems appropriate here...but then again, it's always the officials' fault for a big time loss. Sorry kid, come back next year and try again with your new coach.

[Raymond]

Bye Felecia.

Ole Peter needs to sit back and get some perspective. And he also needs to revisit the teachings of his college coach, the Wizard of Westwood.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by Robmoz

..Player comments..."I never touched him," the junior said, tears in his eyes. "They gave them the game. We couldn't do anything the whole game. They were against us. Those refs crushed our hearts."

I HOPE HE WATCHES THE VIDEO and sees himself clearly holding the other player. A little self reflection seems appropriate here...but then again, it's always the officials' fault for a big time loss. Sorry kid, come back next year and try again with your new coach.

I guess wrapping your arm around the waist of an opponent really isn't touching him. :/

This attitude is not surprising given the attitudes of so many people (from every culture) these days. It is always easier to blame someone else for failures or lack of accomplishment.

[Rich]

I predict someone will be along soon to defend this coach. Before I land in Ireland, I predict.

[jTheUmp]

(slow-mo video is at the bottom of the second link)

Pass Interference, Defense #31. 15 yard penalty, first down.

Oh wait, this is basketball... still a foul though.

Not sure which kid was quoted in the first article... #31 actually fouls him (and based on his body language, he knows it too), but #25 is the one going nuts with disbelief.

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by Robmoz

The regional semi final game...coach blasts officials and makes racial bias comments in his post game remarks. Your thoughts????

Here is the original story...

East Chicago coach Pete Trgovich blasts officiating after regional semifinal loss - Post-Tribune

Here is the first follow up....

Pete Trgovich resigns as boys basketball coach at E.C. Central | East Chicago Central Cardinals Prep Zone | nwitimes.com

Here is the latest follow up...

IHSAA to meet with E.C. Central on Friday concerning postgame comments | Boys Basketball | nwitimes.com

That wasn't the first original newspaper account. The very first one online at nwitimes.com | A Lee Enterprises Newspaper evidenced a tirade laced with racism and a personal preference for profiling that this coach deemed more equitable for his team. That article was very quickly edited because, in the words of the sports editor, it was too harsh not to have the IHSAA comment on the allegations stated. That article really needs to be republished in spite of the coach's resignation so that the public knows this person's character, and so that future school districts might be fully aware of it/
The ironic thing was that his words in the first article now vanished left the vivid impression on the reader that if only the official who called that last foul was of a certain race that game-determining call (in his mind, anyway) would not have been made. Which, of course, upon video review, constitutes a huge slam against those his profiling would prefer.
Twisted. Regretful. Gone, hopefully for good.

[crosscountry55]

"'Any kind of behavior that's negative toward officials is disappointing,' Cox said. 'We have a difficult time retaining officials and getting new ones, and those numbers are not going to grow when we have incidents like this.'"

That about sums up my thoughts right there.

Interestingly, the one place that I have observed and felt the least racial bias anywhere in society is in the officials' dressing room.

My guess is that when Mr. Cox and his staff run their numbers on minority basketball officials in Indiana, the ratio will largely mirror the ratio of minority officials assigned in the state tournament. If it doesn't, then we'll have to have two discussions: 1) The state tournament assigning process, and 2) the recruiting and retention of minority officials as compared to the whole.

[bucky]

That video sure was creepy.

[ODog]

In the event the poor bastard at the center of this mess (the official, NOT the coach) visits this forum, GREAT JOB!

Perfect position, terrific patient whistle, excellent mechanics befitting the moment. He saw what we all saw on the video: the defender's arm snaked around the intended recipient from before the pass was even released. He gave the kid every opportunity to let go and even waited to see the result of the play before he whistled the foul. Outstanding!

The rest of this is a total joke and also totally unsurprising given today's "sporting" climate to which we're all unfortunately accustomed.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by ODog

In the event the poor bastard at the center of this mess (the official, NOT the coach) visits this forum, GREAT JOB!

Perfect position, terrific patient whistle, excellent mechanics befitting the moment. He saw what we all saw on the video: the defender's arm snaked around the intended recipient from before the pass was even released. He gave the kid every opportunity to let go and even waited to see the result of the play before he whistled the foul. Outstanding!

The rest of this is a total joke and also totally unsurprising given today's "sporting" climate to which we're all unfortunately accustomed.

^^^^^^^ well said!

[InsideTheStripe]

Originally Posted by jTheUmp

(slow-mo video is at the bottom of the second link)

Pass Interference, Defense #31. 15 yard penalty, first down.

Oh wait, this is basketball... still a foul though.

There's a hook, but no turn... I wouldn't be so quick to call that DPI.

I'll leave the basketball to basketball guys.

In my personal, qualitative experience as an official I have found the racial composition of my referee brethren to closely mirror the racial demographics of the United States as a whole, with a few exceptions. Here's the breakdown:

United States racial breakdown:
White: 63.7%
Black: 12.2%
Asian: 4.7%
Hispanic: 16.3%
Other races: 3.1%

The national white/black ratio is roughly 5 to 1 (.1915), which is perhaps comparable to the racial demographics of officials nationwide.

Indiana racial breakdown:
White: 80.0%
Black: 9.6%
Asian: 2.1%
Hispanic: 6.7%
Other races: 1.6%

The Indiana white/black ratio is roughly 8.3 to 1 (.1200).

In Indiana they send 9 officials to the regional to work 3 games. Thus, you can expect 7.92 white officials and 1.08 black officials at each site, disregarding travel/location assigning preferences. At East Chicago Central's site there were 8 white refs and 1 black ref (who worked the evening final), which is perfectly on par with Indiana demographics. This does not indicate a lower number of black refs working regional games however -- another regional was assigned 4 black officials. In fact the overall regional assignments for black officials in Indiana were 17/144, for 11.8%. That's almost exactly on par with Indiana's racial demographics.

I am very interested to hear what kind of demographic numbers the IHSAA will release.

[crosscountry55]

Originally Posted by AremRed

In my personal, qualitative experience as an official I have found the racial composition of my referee brethren to closely mirror the racial demographics of the United States as a whole, with a few exceptions. Here's the breakdown:

United States racial breakdown:
White: 63.7%
Black: 12.2%
Asian: 4.7%
Hispanic: 16.3%
Other races: 3.1%

The national white/black ratio is roughly 5 to 1 (.1915), which is perhaps comparable to the racial demographics of officials nationwide.

Indiana racial breakdown:
White: 80.0%
Black: 9.6%
Asian: 2.1%
Hispanic: 6.7%
Other races: 1.6%

The Indiana white/black ratio is roughly 8.3 to 1 (.1200).

In Indiana they send 9 officials to the regional to work 3 games. Thus, you can expect 7.2 white officials and 1.8 black officials at each site, disregarding travel/location assigning preferences. At East Chicago Central's site there were 8 white refs and 1 black ref (who worked the evening final). This does not indicate a lower number of black refs working regional games however -- another regional was assigned 4 black officials. The overall regional assignments for black officials in Indiana were 17/144, for 11.8%. That's actually higher than expected given the Indiana racial demographics.

I am very interested to hear what kind of demographic numbers the IHSAA will release.

AremRed....fascinating perspective. I would not be surprised if the IHSAA numbers confirm that the ratio of black/minority officials exceeds the state census ratio that you presented. I'd wager that this is the case in most states. By no means do I intend to sound insensitive by saying this, but as minorities tend to have lower per capita incomes, I believe the avocation of officiating basketball tends to be more attractive from a recruiting and retention standpoint as a means of supplementing income.

Again, I'm speaking strictly demographically, but what I'm trying to say in a roundabout way is that Coach Trgovich is full of poop.

Originally Posted by crosscountry55

AremRed....fascinating perspective. I would not be surprised if the IHSAA numbers confirm that the ratio of black/minority officials exceeds the state census ratio that you presented. I'd wager that this is the case in most states. By no means do I intend to sound insensitive by saying this, but as minorities tend to have lower per capita incomes, I believe the avocation of officiating basketball tends to be more attractive from a recruiting and retention standpoint as a means of supplementing income.

I agree with your analysis for the most part. In my experience the ratio of white/black refs is MUCH lower when I'm working recreational/travel/AAU basketball where an NFHS license is not required. The cost of licensure, cost of time invested, etc to work the postseason is indeed a factor as well.

I would be most interested in comparing the demographics of the overall IHSAA basketball official population to the demographics of officials advancing at every level of the tournament. If those numbers are statistically significant they could lend insight as to any racial bias inherent in the system.