Multiple referees were attacked during a girls basketball travel tournament in Indiana earlier this week. While it happened following a game involving an Owensboro team, only players from the opposing team were involved in the attack. The Owensboro coach is hoping the incident sheds a light on how there needs to be more protection and respect for sports officials.
(Video courtesy of Owensboro Dynasty Sports Performance Heat)
The incident happened Sunday at Triton Central High School in Shelby County, Indiana, after the Next Level Classic semifinal game between Owensboro’s Dynasty Sports Performance Heat and the Cincinnati Indians Elite.
DSP coach Bobby Ewing said tensions escalated throughout the game as DSP began to pull away, with the Cincinnati team trying to instigate something.
“At first they’re talking trash,” Ewing said. “I started hearing them say ‘meet me outside’ and stuff like that.”
Ewing said the Elite players and coach started receiving technical fouls for their words and actions toward both the DSP team and the refs. Ewing said eventually the refs decided it was enough, and they ended the game with DSP leading 44-10. Ewing didn’t let his team shake hands after the game.
“Something bad was gonna happen. I could just feel it. (The other team was) gonna say something, push, or do something because they were ready to fight,” Ewing said.
Ewing was telling his team to go to one corner of the gym, and when he turned around he saw the other team at the scorer’s table yelling at the ref.
“All of a sudden it just breaks out. They attacked (the female ref),” he said. A male ref was also hit when he was trying to help break up the altercation.
Ewing said after everything had finally been broken up and the team was at the door, a female assistant coach for the Cincinnati team shouted out.
“She says ‘I’ve got five shots when you come outside.’ Everybody knows what five shots mean. I’m thinking there’s a gun, so I’m focused on where my kids go for safety,” he said.
Ewing is hopeful the incident can be used as an example of how sports officials need to be better respected by everyone and protected from people who can’t handle their emotions.
“We’ve got to come up with a better plan of taking care of these officials,” he said. “What’s gonna happen is there’s no longer going to be AAU basketball if it keeps it up — or any sport. People have to learn to control themselves and realize it’s just a game.”
Ewing said he knows it’s easy to get heated, especially when there’s a bad call, but everyone needs to realize it’s just a sport and officials are doing the best they can.
“I just want something to be done to protect these refs. They don’t get paid a lot. They’re not out there trying to cheat people. They don’t always make the greatest calls. That’s just part of basketball,” he said. “It’s not about wins or losses really with AAU basketball. You’re focusing on your kids getting better and them trying to get scholarships and just life in general.”
That impact on the young athlete’s lives was evidenced immediately after the incident for the DSP players, who are all rising freshmen except for one sophomore.
Ewing said they had to play about 15 minutes later in the championship game. He said he was in basketball mode, so he turned focus toward regrouping and playing the next game, which was their last of the summer.
But when he asked the girls if they were ready to play, two of them said they weren’t.
“That’s when it really hit me, like wow they’re hurt, this scared them. Like they’re probably traumatized.” Ewing said. “Now you’ve gotta think about when they go to these other tournaments next year, when they walk into a gym, they’re probably thinking about this in the back of their head.”
Ewing said he was proud of his team for how they handled the entire day, saying they didn’t get involved in any altercations and always stayed level-headed.
“It was amazing to see how our kids responded and just walked away rather than retaliate when someone was trying to bully them. When one girl said, ‘meet me outside,’ one of my kids said no, thank you. They got out there and walked out of the way and didn’t get involved,” he said. “I thought they did an awesome job.”
As of Wednesday, no charges had been filed but the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department was continuing to investigate the incident.
