Another ugly incident: official vs. parent
 

Lots of neat things in this article.

1) Christian school.
2) "volunteer referees for interscholastic sporting events".
3) felony charges for the spectators.
4) they picked on a 250-pound corrections officer (not smart).
5) "chest-butting, finger-poking and nose-flicking"
6) 60 ejections per week in Florida HS games!!

Wow.

Sad, but hardly new. Or surprising.

I can tell you definitively that this part of the article is inaccurate. He is in fact a paid official sanctioned locally and by the state of FL.

and this is why I don't wear the noose

Are you serious?

no. the main reason i don't wear it is because I don't like how it feels.

consider the aforementioned comment as a bad attempt at humor

on that note though, has anyone ever heard of anyone getting choked with a full lanyard or noose? just something i've sort of wondered about. i read somewhere that that was part of the motivation for the smitty.

The home team was a Christian school - the fans involved were from the visiting team.

must have been from the local Mosque -- still having harboring resentment for the crusades....

but I agree with Scrapper's #1 finding -- a majority of my unbelievable situations regarding sportsmanship, or lack thereof, have come in religious institutions...weird but NOT really

Why are the threads on this forum turning into a place where we can make blanket statements about religious schools? I don't think that's what this forum was set up to do.:(

i never made a blanket statement -- i said from my past experience this is what I have seen -- not my fault that its been that way so when I hear something happen in a religious institution it doesnt surprise me

I am just making conclusions from past experiences - I am just stating fact as far as I am concerned -- then again I dont preach PC or dont claim to be so what the hell do I care...

The reason I commented on the fact that the incident was at a Christian school was NOT to cast aspersions on Christians or Christian schools. I merely thought it was funny that we'd been having that conversation very recently and then this incident happens at a Christian school. Just a funny coincidence.

Connecticut Catholic Schools
 

Here in Conecticut, Catholic high school basketball is taken very seriously and is "big time" basketball. All Catholic high schools, like all public high schools, fall under the guidelines and rules of the CIAC, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, a body that governs most interscholastic sports for both public high schools and Catholic high schools in the state of Connecticut. Our CIAC state tournaments divide high school teams into divisions based on their male or female enrollments, and Catholic high schools have won most of the state basketball championships, despite the fact that there are a lot fewer Catholic high schools in the state than public high schools. Not only do Catholic high school teams play public high school teams in the state tournnament, they are very often in the same interscholastic league or conference, and play each other during the regular season. Here in Conncecticut, we do not have a Catholic high school only tournament or tournament division, nor do we have Catholic high school only leagues or conferences.

Public high school coaches and athletic directors often complain that Catholic high school basketball programs have an unfair advantage because they can draw students, and players, from many towns over a wide geographic area, whereas, here in Connecticut, with the rare exception of a few technical schools, or regional high schools, most in rural areas, public high schools are forced, by the CIAC rules, to only take players from their own town or city, or in the case of cities with more than one public high school, are forced by the CIAC rules to take players from only one small geographic area of that city. Some public high school coaches and athletic directors have further complained that Catholic high school coaches "recruit" players, something that is forbidden by CIAC rules, that is, schools cannot recruit students for their athletic ability.

That being said, Cathlolic high school basketball programs often, but not always, exhibit some of the "bad" things that are associated with "big time" high school basketball, especially regarding bad feelings between players and fans when Cathlolic high schools play public high schools, for the reasons outlined above, something that must often be addressed, or dealt with, by officials.

However, here in Connecticut, things are starting to change. Due to the federal "No Child Left Behind" act, as well as state initiatives trying to improve education in the state, especially in the urban schools, we are seeing more "magnet" schools and regional schools that attract students, and athletes, from wider geographic areas. One New Haven magnet school has already seen some success in both football and basketball. The CIAC will eventually be forced to change it's tournament rules and guidelines to adjust to these changes.

Also, with one possible exception, here in Conncecticut, Christian high school basketball is usually "low key". Christian high schools do not belong to the CIAC, and all have their own post season tournament. School enrollments are usually quite low, with many teams fielding seventh or eighth grade players on "varsity" teams. Games usually start with a prayer, and the players, coaches, and fans, for the most part, with very few exceptions, are very respectful to officials and opponents.

These are the facts about Cathlolic high school and Christian high school basketball programs here in Connecticut. I hope that Forum members do not find this post to be anti-Catholic or anti-Christian. I am a Catholic, have a tattoo of a cross on my upper arm, and will be attending mass in few hours.