Worcester, Mass. Incident of 2006

Worcester, MA., March 5, 2006 - Black Coach Calls White Officials "Racists" After Loss.  Coach's Racism Remarks Censured, Worcester Telegram and Gazette March 7, 2006 by Dave Nordman and Jim Wilson.  Coach Who Accused Refs of Racism Gets Four Game Suspension, Associated Press May 22, 2006.  See Also, Coach Gets Four-Game Penalty for Racism Claims, Referee Magazine July, 2006 page 10.

Not everybody is appalled by the coach's remarks - the Worcester Magazine says let's investigate the charges in its story, The Elephant In The Room, Worcester Magazine, Slant and Rants Our Turn Section, March 9-15, 2006.  Worcester Magazine then follows up with a story where other South High fans and coaches say they've been jobbed by the officiating, and Worcester Magazine gives this credence with the neutral title, The Coach Is Not Alone, Worcester Magazine, March 23-29, 2006 by Scott Zoback.

Worcester Magazine purports to be the evenhanded voice of reason, but that doesn't fly here.  Coaches get angry in millions of games.  Officials are physically attacked hundreds if not thousands of times a year and subject to abuse and complaints about their integrity on a regular basis. 

The fact that a number of coaches from one school think officiating is poor and biased doesn't mean it's true or that it's even credible.  For Worcester Magazine to lend credence to a charge of referee racism without a shred of evidence is not only wrong it's also a bit impractical.  After all, if we had to investigate the millions of complaints from coaches who didn't like a referee's call we'd never play any game without having a post-game investigation about some sort of bias.  Worse, we'd have an awful lot of games where people of one race complained that an official of another race gave them a raw deal.

Remember, this can cut both ways.  In professional tennis, we've seen a white player accuse an African American chair official of cheating to help James Blake, an African-American player.  If we followed the Worcester Magazine's approach, we'd remove the African-American official while we investigated - leaving the sport without any African-American officials.

Simply put, it's unfair to the officials to lend an air of credence to angry post-game comments without any evidence of wrongdoing.  Having said that, it is equally important for officials to screen their members for potential conflicts of interests such as attendance at one of the schools involved in the game or even a social relationship with a coach.  Some conflicts may matter and others may not - that depends on the local community.  For more on conflicts, see my article Conflicts of Interest Policies: A Vital Tool For Your Association, NASO On Board, February, 2005, page 1 (National Association of Sports Officials).