| JRutledge |
Thu Feb 28, 2013 05:06pm |
I could not find the story. So I will retell the story.
Well I was working a game where the court had plenty of room on one end line of the court and not so much room on the other end. Well the visiting team was on the short end of the court (where there team's bench was located as well) and they had like 20+ cheerleaders and started the game right on the line of the end line. Well we noticed rather early that they were right there and told them to move politely a few times thinking that they would move like everyone else does.
Well after the first half this young AD comes to our locker room and said to my partner who is about 6'6" tall white guy, "The cheerleading coach is really upset with you" in a rather joking manner while he points at my partner. Well he basically told us that the cheerleading coach was upset because we ran into the cheerleaders. We explained to him, each of us have been having this problem with them and they seemed to not move when asked. For the record this was a team that runs that offense where there are "line changes" so the game is constantly moving and believe it or not we did not have situations to stop play. The AD was a first year guy and did not seem to handle the situation or realize that this is something he could have squelched on his own.
As we come out onto the court after halftime to resume the game, we have this angry cheerleading coach come towards us walking fast and hard and going primarily at my partner as if she was going to give him a piece of her mind. Well before she could say much I gave her the "stop sign" and said, "We are not having this conversation with you, you need to walk away from us right now." Amazingly, she did just that and started walking to the AD and talking to him more and there appeared to be a police officer around their conversation. I immediately go to the cheerleaders and tell them, "Ladies, if we run into any of you during this second half, I will put everyone in the stands for the rest of the game." Without incident or other comments, they move to the sideline which had more than enough room across from the benches and table. We had no other incidents the rest of the game, but the story gets better.
Immediately after the game as we head to the locker room, a police officer that was already at the game said to my partner, "We need to talk to you." Well he meant my tall partner and would not allow us to go in the room with him as they talked to him for 10 minutes or so as we waited for this conversation to end outside the door. Well the police officers gave him some kind of citation for assault which he had to eventually go to court for the issue to be resolved but he still had to go to court. And he was charged because he ran into one of the cheerleaders as we all did during the game.
Because I was not the one that was charged, I filed a Special Report with our state, I contacted the assignor about the issue that night as well. And our state has rather extensive regulations for cheerleading teams as to what they were supposed to do and where they were to stand. Even host schools of playoffs must have 3 feet of room around the court or they cannot host a regional or sectional if they cannot provide that kind of room.
I tell this story often to illustrate to officials how easily we can get into legal trouble and how to avoid these situations as it could have easily been all three of us charged with a crime. BTW, the grandparent of one of the cheerleaders and mother were the people that got upset and everything snowballed from there. No adults over the event or the team used common sense and that is why we had this issue in the first place and why an official had to go to court.
Peace
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