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City High / Fairfield Basketball Game Drama

I'm confused why people think the refs shouldn't have the authority to kick someone out. They should control the game and not let things get out of hand but not be able to remove someone that is getting out of hand? The AD is much more likely to give an unruly fan the benefit of the doubt to a parent he knows and is from his school and much more likely to not tolerate anything from a parent of the other school.

The ref is the impartial party and should have the final say imo.
 
I'm confused why people think the refs shouldn't have the authority to kick someone out. They should control the game and not let things get out of hand but not be able to remove someone that is getting out of hand? The AD is much more likely to give an unruly fan the benefit of the doubt to a parent he knows and is from his school and much more likely to not tolerate anything from a parent of the other school.

The ref is the impartial party and should have the final say imo.
It is even that way in youth sports. I remember a club baseball game where an opposing team parent was being a buffoon and the ump ran him. He tried to stand just beyond the outfield fence and watch and the ump talked to the person running the tournament, who made him get in the car (or cops were being called).
 
I will start by saying there is a recognition from City High people that things got out of hand, and inappropriate things happened. I have heard that all sports teams were talked to by the coaches yesterday and today about what happened on the court, and how it was wrong, and not reflective of the values of City High.
This will be disjointed. There are lots of things that happened, and I've talked to several people who were there, and did personally hear things, but the time line is hard to figure out.
Hard fought game. Lampe is a driven kid. He and #14 rolled around on the floor for a loose ball, and the belief from the City parents is #14 struck Lampe in the face on purpose during this play. Seems like two hard nosed, effort kids. Lampe's 5th foul was committed on #14, and he immediately said something to the effect of, "I got you (So, acknowledged he fouled him), nice game". The Fairfield player said, "F you, mother effer, you effing pussy". At which point the shove happened. Honestly I can live with that, and the one game suspension he would have gotten. Everything beyond the shove was uncalled for, and he's going to have to deal with the ramifications.
I have uniformly heard that the game was poorly officiated. It was physical. The officials had not called a City High game from what several parents told me, and they did work the sophomore game before hand. That isn't always the practice, but some parents think there may have been a fatigue issue at work.
City High's coach, Brennan Swayzer, is not known as a hot head. I was told that after City's previous game to Monday night he was directly complimented by the officials that worked that game for his on court demeanor.
At various times during the game Fairfield players would turn to City's coach, and bench, after a made shot and yell out, "Yeah Boy"!!!. That was poorly received. Yeah, kids say that stuff to each other, but the optic of a multi-racial team being yelled at by white kids was grating. And, to yell that at the coach is troubling. Either a team issue, or, kids who are unaware of how something is received. Swayzer received a technical foul, and as one official did the actual work of making the call at the table, Swayzer was sitting back down when the other official came up and said while pointing his finger at Swayzer, "Sit down, Know your place". I know that's not what a lot of people would call overtly racist. I'll let you guys hash that out. I know it was received poorly by Swayzer, the assistants, and the black parents in particular.
At one point in time a City High mom was walking out of the gym during a break in action and she passed near one official and said, "This is the worst officiated game I've ever seen". I specifically asked if she stopped, faced the official, impeded the officials movement, or swore at him, and was told no on all accounts. The mom was outside of the gym for several minutes, came back in, the game resumed, then the official stopped play, and had the Fairfield AD remove the mom. He came into the stands, said she had to go, she asked why, and the AD said he didn't know, just that the ref said she had to go. This led to an amping up of the anger in the stands.
I was told the AD repeatedly apologized to the mom outside of the gym, and said she shouldn't have been ejected, but he had no choice. The ref demanded that she be removed from the property, which was refused, but led to more anger.
That seems like a poorly handled situation. The ref simply could have pulled the AD over and said, hey, keep an eye on her, that was inappropriate. Or, he could have just let it go. But, stopping the action, and making a display of removing a parent, was an escalation.
Now, a lot of parents have said things got too hot. John Bacon was there, but he was there as a parent. He has told people from what I have heard that he feels bad, and that he should have noticed things were going sideways, and stood up and told people to settle down. When the scuffle on the court broke out he did a good job taking action immediately.
To the statement I have heard that although it was accredited to Bacon, the AD, Degner, wrote it with input by others, including Bacon. There was a belief they had to be supportive of Swayzer because of an immediate push back by an assistant, and anger expressed by African American parents.
If you have questions I may or may not respond. Again, that's pretty disjointed, and I don't think I am recalling everything I was told.
I will repeat that a lot of people at City think things went sideways, shouldn't have, are sorry it did go sideways, and have taken corrective steps. It will be interesting to see if anyone at Fairfield sees a growth opportunity, or the referees take a moment to step back and examine things from a different perspective.
LOL.....poor City High. It was ALL the other team and ref's fault.
 
It is even that way in youth sports. I remember a club baseball game where an opposing team parent was being a buffoon and the ump ran him. He tried to stand just beyond the outfield fence and watch and the ump talked to the person running the tournament, who made him get in the car (or cops were being called).
And we wonder why kids act the way they do
 
The refs most certainly have the authority to toss coaches and parents out. I've seen it all the way from U8 soccer to high school baseball/basketball.

Just this Monday night I was coaching my sons middle school basketball game and the son of my other coach got yelled at by the ref to stop "standing up and challenging every call" or he would be tossed out. The gym went immediately silent, and I will say it did quiet down some of the parents.

I have zero problems with them controlling the entire environment. They can feel with things are starting to ramp up and it's their job to keep the game fair and under control.
 
Hearing the refs quote to Swayzer was, “You better go sit down, boy.” That ref should not be able to officiate games anymore. It was coach Swayzer’s 1st technical he has received, a very calm and mild mannered coach.
You really think saying that sentence is reason to disqualify a ref from working?
No way.

Don't make me defend refs, I'd rather not.
 
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I mostly agree. But if we want more folks to WANT to be an official nowadays something has to be done. It's crazy the amount of abuse they take...

I dabbled in officiating a decade ago to make a little cash on the side...intramural softball and basketball after I retired from the AF. Lasted a year...wasn't worth it. Years earlier did little league baseball and lasted a year at that....just didn't want to deal with the abuse.....imagine it's worse now.

(full disclosure....I kind of sucked :) )

I was more of a "let them play" type official which probably opened me up for abuse :)

I play in a competitor softball league and have for years and it amazes me how much shit the umps take. Grown ass adults bitching and complaining about a game that means absolutely nothing.

it hilarious how the big, super macho men are the biggest babies.
 
As a former Iowa Citian, I'm surprised that City High competes against Fairfield. I assumed Fairfield is a dying small town, good for them for winning. I'm also surprised there's enough interest in high school sports to sustain a 7 page thread.
 
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I play in a competitor softball league and have for years and it amazes me how much shit the umps take. Grown ass adults bitching and complaining about a game that means absolutely nothing.

it hilarious how the big, super macho men are the biggest babies.
When I was doing softball had a guy go ape shit when I called a third strike on him.

1.) It's softball....anywhere close to the plate you have to be swinging with 2 strikes.
2) It's softball. If you're looking for a walk in softball you're a big girlyman who shouldn't have spent over $100 on their bat....which he did.
 
I play in a competitor softball league and have for years and it amazes me how much shit the umps take. Grown ass adults bitching and complaining about a game that means absolutely nothing.

it hilarious how the big, super macho men are the biggest babies.
That brings back a memory, I played years and years of slow pitch, but my BIL played many years on an ultra-competitive fast pitch team (like most teams had pitchers from New Zealand, all had big sponsors, they went to the world championships in Victoria, BC, etc). We would go to watch them on weekends sometimes. One double-header I was sitting there in the stands in shorts and flip flops waiting for the game to start and my BIL came over and said "we have a problem, one of the umps didn't show. We only have a home plate ump. Would you mind being the first base ump? Everybody understands, I don't think it will be too bad." So I said sure, I would do it. Well, of course there were multiple bang/bang plays at first throughout the games and both teams (but especially my BIL's team) thought I got all of them wrong. And I have never seen a game where so many guys appealed the home plate ump's calls on checked swings! Seems like 10 times! I went with the home plate ump's call every single time. I was so glad when the second game got over.
 
As a former Iowa Citian, I'm surprised that City High competes against Fairfield. I assumed Fairfield is a dying small town, good for them for winning. I'm also surprised there's enough interest in high school sports to sustain a 7 page thread.

Me too. The depth of feeling adults in Iowa seem to have for a high school they didn't attend is really strange to me.
 
Me too. The depth of feeling adults in Iowa seem to have for a high school they didn't attend is really strange to me.
I graduated from City High a couple of decades ago, played multiple sports and they will always be my favorite high school. That being said, any rivalry that I felt with other schools basically died when I graduated and Iowa became my favorite team to follow and I was attending.

It's hilarious to see the hatred others have for City, even from West High grads. Reminds me of how ISU fans act like a little brother to the U of I - like a little man syndrome.
 
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I graduated from City High a couple of decades ago, played multiple sports and they will always be my favorite high school. That being said, any rivalry that I felt with other schools basically died when I graduated and Iowa became my favorite team to follow.

It's hilarious to see the hatred others have for City, even from West High grads. Reminds me of how ISU fans act like a little brother to the U of I - like a little man syndrome.

That sh!t has bled over into the political threads as well, very bizarre. I can't imagine carrying a hatred for North Fayette, South Winn or Kee High into my adult years.
 
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Your reliability around here is less than zero FYI.
Oh really, based on what? Let me guess, we've disagreed on something political? This whole thread is based on mostly biased 2nd and 3rd hand info, and the word of a principal who's obviously going to give his tinted account of things. The refs that were working this game are experienced good guys who didn't deserve the racism allegations whatsoever.
 
Don't shoot the messenger, just repeating what was said by a parent who was in attendance. Were you?
That would have been fine if you left it as, "this is what a parent in attendance said"... but you took it further with the "CIty high experiences this every time they leave the city to play... blue in a sea of red" garbage. GTFO with that crap.
 
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Oh really, based on what? Let me guess, we've disagreed on something political? This whole thread is based on mostly biased 2nd and 3rd hand info, and the word of a principal who's obviously going to give his tinted account of things. The refs that were working this game are experienced good guys who didn't deserve the racism allegations whatsoever.

Sounds like you’ve just got different tinted glasses you’re looking through.
 
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That would have been fine if you left it as, "this is what a parent in attendance said"... but you took it further with the "CIty high experiences this every time they leave the city to play... blue in a sea of red" garbage. GTFO with that crap.
You GTFO, that's what the parent told me. Not going to waste any time with you, especially after the obviously speculative drivel you posted below:
Talked to a good friend who's a 20 year football and bball high school ref. Knows the staff and called bs from the start. John bacon is a clown. Probably didn't like getting teased about his fanny pack.
I don't like Bacon any more than anyone else, but it's an example of typical hypocritical trash from a hypocrite.
Your reliability around here is less than zero FYI.
Yep, about sums it up.
 
At various times during the game Fairfield players would turn to City's coach, and bench, after a made shot and yell out, "Yeah Boy"!!!.

I've played a lot of sports. I've helped coach a lot of sports. I've watched a lot of sports.

This sounds so stupid I find it hard to believe.

I would believe "suck on deez nuts" before "yeah boy!!".

LOL
 
If I were you I wouldn't even offer to defend this situation. It's 2023, everyone has had ample time to get used to the fact that it is provocative, to say the least, to address a black man as "boy".

Exactly!

How does he know the "guys" pronouns????!!!!!

He may prefer girl!

Or they!

Or queer!
 
You GTFO, that's what the parent told me. Not going to waste any time with you, especially after the obviously speculative drivel you posted below:

I don't like Bacon any more than anyone else, but it's an example of typical hypocritical trash from a hypocrite.

Yep, about sums it up.
Just spoke with a parent - from my understanding an official directed a racial epithet at the City coach (who I know from high school). The player was definitely provoked, repeatedly throughout the course of the game. Violence should not occur in this situation of course, but this should not have happened.

Sounds like this type of racism occurs pretty regularly any time the team ventures outside Iowa City, mostly from students. An Island of blue in a sea of red.
Your entire initial post has been contradicted, there was no "racial epithet", and multiple people have also called bullshit on your "this type of racism occurs pretty regularly any time the team ventures outside IC..."
It was a garbage post you concluded with a disgusting race baiting final take. You'd delete it if you had any integrity.
 
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