Be careful and mindful if you work adult games

[Nevadaref]

I just posted in the soccer forum about a man in Michigan who was sentenced to 8-15 years for assaulting a soccer referee and causing his death during an adult league game.

If you are one of those people who work adult basketball, please take care and protect yourself.

[Freddy]

Soccer player gets 8 years in prison for killing referee

By ED WHITE

Associated Press

DETROIT — A widow held up a red card, signaling ejection, as a weekend soccer player was sentenced Friday to at least eight years in prison for a punch that killed a Detroit-area referee.

The case against Bassel Saad has put a spotlight on out-of-control recreational athletes and inspired Michigan lawmakers to consider new crimes for assaults on sports referees.

The death of John Bieniewicz was “senseless, meaningless,” his wife, Kris Bieniewicz, told the judge. “All because of a call on a soccer field. It’s a game. It’s a game that we teach our kids as soon as they can walk.”

Saad pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, admitting he punched Bieniewicz during a game last summer at a Livonia park. Bieniewicz, 44, was preparing to call a penalty that would have ejected the Dearborn auto mechanic.

Bieniewicz died two days later.

A red card signals ejection in soccer. Kris Bieniewicz pulled one from her pocket at the end of her remarks in court, although Saad had his back to the gallery and didn’t see it.

She said the sentence and plea deal were generous, adding: “It will always be murder in my eyes.”

“One man has enough pent-up frustration, enough vengeance in his heart, that with one blow he can take my husband’s life and in the process destroy not only my family but his family,” Bieniewicz said. Saad, 37, will be eligible for parole after eight years. The maximum punishment is 15 years in prison, and he also could be deported. He expressed remorse and said he prays for the Bieniewicz family, which includes two children.

Saad wishes “he could have that day back,”defense attorney Cyril Hall said.

The sentence followed terms of a plea deal reached in February that trumps an initial charge of second-degree murder. Saad was ordered to pay $9,200 in funeral expenses. “For better or for worse, you’ve come to personify all that’s wrong with many people’s belief about the escalation of violence in sports,” Wayne County Judge Thomas Cameron told him.

The victim’s sisters and mother referred to Bieniewicz as a selfless son and sibling who didn’t miss a family member’s birthday and was a natural confidante.
Copyright (c)2015 The Herald-Palladium 2015

[Freddy]

Supporting Sports Officials

(Jack Roberts, MHSAA Executive Director, Weekly Blog)

February 20, 2015

There recently has been some criticism that the MHSAA hasn’t “had the backs” of sports officials regarding a proposal for a new state law.

To make a difference of opinion about legislative strategy the litmus test of MHSAA support for officials is misguided at best and manipulative at worst.

Moreover, from the standpoint of coaches and spectators, the MHSAA is much too ready to support officials, even when officials misapply a game rule or misjudge a contest situation. That we always back officials, even when they are wrong, is a criticism that resonates with the public far more than the recent, rare criticism that we don’t have officials’ backs on a piece of legislation that we believe lacks merit.

Despite the hype and hope, there are two things the proposed legislation will not do:

First, additional legal sanctions will not dissuade someone who has momentarily lost his or her mind to pause and think, “Oh yeah, If I slug this person, there’s an extra penalty.” There is no evidence that such legislation works as a deterrent to emotional outbursts.

Second, putting such legislation on the books will not improve sportsmanship on the front lines. Such laws are empty words; improving sportsmanship is year-round, grassroots work of real substance.

Because our energies are invested in the ongoing work of improving sportsmanship in interscholastic athletics’ special niche in the world of sports, the MHSAA has been known nationwide for several decades as a high school association with great passion for good sportsmanship and innovative programs to improve sportsmanship.

This week alone we have thousands of students and others voluntarily watching videos promoting school spirit and good sportsmanship as the fourth annual “Battle of the Fans” concludes. This program, born in Michigan, is now spreading to our counterpart organizations across the US.

This week, and almost every week, we have staff traveling “anytime, anywhere” to deliver face-to-face education to groups of high school coaches who, more than anyone else, influence the behaviors of both players and spectators.

Through the years, we have promoted sportsmanship with audio and video and print promotions. We’ve conducted statewide, league and local sportsmanship summits as well as team captain and student leadership workshops. We have rewarded good sportsmanship, and penalized bad.

The MHSAA’s Constitution requires every member school to adopt a code of good sportsmanship for its athletes, coaches and spectators, an educational program to promote good sportsmanship, and a system of progressive discipline for failure to behave according to the code of good sportsmanship. A condition of MHSAA membership is to demonstrate that those requirements are being met.

Time and money spent on real solutions, not symbolism, is the MHSAA’s approach to creating and maintaining a higher level of sportsmanship. And it’s the best way for the MHSAA to demonstrate its ongoing support for contest officials.

I worked a soccer game today and had to dismiss a fan. As he was leaving he told the referee and I that he would see us in the parking lot, and he did confront the referee and other assistant as they left (I wasn't there), waiting in his car and yelling at them as they went to theirs.

Please do not hesitate to call the cops if anyone threatens anything like this, and make sure you get an escort.