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Here’s the latest I have this Wednesday morning…
I’d love to have more info from Aberdeen AD Dr. Wendy McCullough, but when I asked her about the situation this morning, she immediately transferred me to Superintendent Chester Leigh (voicemail). She all but hung up on me in the middle of a sentence.
For some background, you may or may not know this. When football games end on Friday nights, a game administrator is supposed to escort the officials to their vehicles. Typically, police officers even guide them out and hold traffic so they can leave.
After Friday’s game, neither of the two happened.
Instead, according to someone who saw it all happen, one of the officials got into his vehicle and blew the horn at the officers to guide him out. He shouldn’t have had too if they had been paying attention or admins had followed the correct protocol.
Not sure if it startled the officer or just irritated them, but somewhere in this time frame, the officer accused the referee of reckless driving and almost hitting officers. I’ve been told that the referee in no way did that and in fact had driven only a few feet. However, he was given a ticket and from what I hear, was also told to get off his phone, at one point to put his hands on the wheel and demanded not to spin a wheel leaving the lot.
If any of the officers care to respond, please do. Like I say, I was told this by someone near the situation.
The referee also asked more than once to speak with a game administrator, to which he was told there were none because the game was over. My question is this, where was Aberdeen AD Wendy McCullough when all of this was going on? Game management plans require a school official (typically the AD) to either control or assign someone to escort the officials from school grounds.
The Mississippi High School Activities Association requires officials to leave immediately following the games.
I spoke with McCullough on the track around the field as soon as the game ended (and she again refused an interview). Instead of standing on the track making sure the coaches were wearing those silly sideline passes, she should have been doing her job.
Her job is apparently unlike the job of any other AD in the country (see next post later today).
On top of all of that though, as of this morning, there will be no officials at Aberdeen on Friday when Division 2-3A play opens against Winona. Why? Because the officials are awaiting an apology.
To my knowledge the school has not issued an apology and they haven’t yet found the time to call me back if otherwise.
Larry Riley, District 1’s assigning secretary told me this morning that he wants an apology issued from the school. He’d also like the ticket rescinded, but that doesn’t look likely either.
“From my point, I can’t send officials anywhere where we are sending them into a problem,” he said. "If the school is not willing to acknowledge that they messed up and didn’t do their job on having the game manager there taking care of the officials, how can I in honest conscience send anybody down there to do a game? We have to go under the assumption that the school is going to take care of us.
“I’ve been doing this for over 40 years and we’ve never had a situation like this.”
There may actually be a new management plan coming from the school, but until the apology is issued, Aberdeen will have to move to the game to Winona or forfeit.
If the city and school do not issue a written apology, then no officials will be sent. Same goes for junior high games and Aberdeen’s remaining home games.
“They need to acknowledge that they didn’t fill their obligations,” Riley said. "The way I understand it, they’re not going to do that. If they’re not going to do that, I can’t send people down there and trust their care into them again.
“The horrible thing is, the coach and the players have nothing to do with it and they’ll be the one that get the brunt of it. They have a good team. We enjoy working with Coach (Chris) Duncan. We enjoy working with the kids down there, but the administration is standing between us and them.”
From Tuesday
Apparently a few locks were changed at the field and the coaches and referees were locked in the field following Friday’s win against Houston. I’ve also heard that a referee was given a ticket as he was leaving the school.
Reportedly, Aberdeen won’t be issued any officials when division play opens here on Friday until the school issues an apology to the officials.
Trying to find out more info on the situation. Soon as I do, you’ll know.
Ftiday? What day of the week is that? Is it Friday.
Actually, I already read the story on Monroe360 about the ticket and heard Brandon Speck on WCBI TV talking about it last night. So I'm good with the info, thanks.
You seem to really push The Commercial Dispatch? Do you work there?
I read your earlier post and you are right it is a tough season for Amory. Hoping for better things in the future and I still think Amory rocks as a town to live in.
Your posts are always so mean spirited. Maybe you should read some other posts here like from Gamezone. At least he has a sense of humor about things sometimes. You kind of sound like that old sports writer Don Rowe from the Aberdeen paper years ago.
Last the time I saw negative attacks like this it was from him.
The THREE stories you speak of that are posted on our site were posted before the issue resolved. You don't take stories off of a site just because the problem was resolved.
If you'll notice, the more recent stories were that the issue was resolved and the ticket was taken care of.
Know how you know the issue was resolved. We had - and have - it here. Not only were we the first to have it, no other news outlet had it. Anywhere else you read that the issue was resolved came from us.
Brandon Speck
Monroe Journal
Pray tell, please enlighten us as to just exactly what your 'experience' consists of.
Also, if you're such an expert on referees and their private lives, instead of saying you 'heard' this and you 'heard' that, give us some concrete examples of the low character you ascribe to the referees. Name the names of referees who have large debts and are gamblers. I'll bet the farm that you can't name one single solitary name.
You know, it's real easy to get on this site and accuse people of having 'low character,' and I could just as easily say that I 'heard' you were a no-account, ignorant fool, but I don't have to do that because you have proven that fact all by yourself.
I've been involved in high school sports for the past 50 years in one capacity or another and I'll be the first to admit I've had more than one beef with some of the calls referees have made. True, on occasion some calls have cost us games (and other schools too), but those calls came about as the result of incompetence or from being out of position.
But in those 50 years, I haven't read about, heard of or known of one single referee who has been caught or who has been charged with accepting a bribe to fix a high school game. So if you're such an expert in this area, lay some names on us and I'll eat crow.
As in anything in this life, posters here included, there are competent individuals and then there are the nincompoops and you've let everybody on this site know which group you fall into.
And as far as the referee squealing his tires in front of your family, if McCullough had been on site escorting the official out of the area like she was supposed to have been and made sure the police were there to make sure no one was going to get run over in the process, then maybe you wouldn't have been put in so much danger.
McCullough must have been taught how not to manage a game by Teresa Price, a former high school principal at Aberdeen whose idea of game management was to park her butt in a lawn chair on the track surrounded by on-duty policemen before she high-tailed it back to Okolona or wherever she lived half-way through the fourth quarter.
And how do you know this official wasn't trying to get home to his family, rather than to a liquor store. Also, enlighten us as to a buffet in the area that's open at 10 on a Friday night. You're such an expert in these areas and I can't wait for you to give us some answers.
I don't appreciate your tone and I did'nt say this guy was an alcoholic but from my experiences the referees for high school games are usually that of low character. Many times I have heard of refs taking bribes before games and some of the calls like holding against our Bulldogs were terrible calls and have cost us games in years past. The referee that pulled out with his tires squealing right in front of my family was obviously in a hurry to get somewhere whether it was a liquor store or the nearest buffet. Your not as smart as you think you are about things that go on behind our backs before these games. Many of the referees are gamblers too and have large debts and fixing games is normal to them.
Online newspapers give the viewers a sneak peek at that’s day’s news stories and permit comments to be made concerning the story. Once it is posted, there is no constant update like we have on monroe360. The stories stay the same until the they are replaced the following day.
The Dispatch is an afternoon newspaper five days per week, with a morning edition on Sunday. The sports staff (all of maybe three full-time writers) is on the job in the wee hours of the morning because they have an 8 a.m. deadline. They usually depart the scene around noon and then cover local events starting in the afternoon.
So for the Dispatch to have had the complete story this afternoon, including extensive interviews with Reedell Holmes, Larry Riley and Larry Thomas in Jackson, some of that legwork and the majority of the story had to have been in place the day before for the Wednesday deadline to have been met.
Now the first mention of this incident carried on this blog Tuesday afternoon was as follows: ‘Apparently a few locks were changed at the field and the coaches and referees were locked in the field following Friday’s win against Houston. I’ve also heard that a referee was given a ticket as he was leaving the school. Reportedly, Aberdeen won’t be issued any officials when division play opens here on Friday until the school issues an apology to the officials. Trying to find out more info on the situation. Soon as I do, you’ll know.’
Notice the key words here: apparently, I’ve also heard, reportedly, trying to find out more info and soon as I do. This was the first mention of the incident on Monroe 360 and it wasn’t posted until sometime Tuesday afternoon and there wasn’t a great deal of detail. The Dispatch, though, must have had just about everything nailed down late Tuesday or very early Wednesday morning. monroe360 had the same time frame to work up a story, not for the Monroe Journal, but for the Daily Journal, but there wasn’t the first mention in the Daily Journal that I could find.
Prior to this meager post Tuesday afternoon, no one at the Journal had a clue that anything had taken place until well after a blogger posted comments on another local blog (which is still up) and I quote: ‘You've missed yet another big scoop here in the South end of the county. The only reason I'm even saying anything at all about it is because I want it on the record (and these comments won’t be deleted as it will be on the Monroe360 site) that……an unprecedented event has been unfolding here in Aberdeen and you are completely unaware of what it is (if you did know, we'd already be reading about it on the Monroe360 blog and it would have been covered in this week's paper which is due out tomorrow; I can assure you, as of this moment, it isn’t on the blog and it won't be in tomorrow's paper.) So once again, Brandon, you’ve been scooped.’ Once these comments hit the blog, though, all of a sudden there was the aforementioned blog on monroe360.
This isn’t the first time the Dispatch has scooped the Journal folks, either. The Dispatch carried a great story on Roy Hazzle and the Aberdeen gym being named after him over a week ago and that story has yet to be printed in the Aberdeen sports section (unless I’m blind and just missed it). Monroe360 did have a couple of lines about it several days ago, but they didn’t spell Hazzle’s name right.
One friendly jab here Amoryrocks, I can’t see where Amory has been rocking on the old football field this year. Years past, I’ll concede to you but not this year.
That means some of these boys have the opportunity to rise above all the small town petty bs and get out and make something of their lives. Yet, it would seem that there are those in the district and community that would rather use their power and influence to sabotage the program and ultimately, their chance at success.
How tragic... people that claim to care about the kids really are stuck on stupid, still operating with a radical mentality of yesterday... and doing this in spite of the obvious examples of change all across the land. Isn’t it time to come into the 21st century, to walk in victory as a community and to lay down the hatred and mistrust of a bygone era?
Submit to the authority placed above you. Apologize as requested. Do it for the boys. Do it even if you believe that you are right and they are wrong. It doesn’t hurt to swallow ones pride… It builds character.
What follows is one side of this story, the side of the official involved in the fiasco. The official (who shall remain nameless) was the first of the game officials to arrive at Lester Miley Stadium and when he attempted to park inside the fence on the West end of the stadium, he realized the entire area was like a swamp. He was driving a 4-wheel drive vehicle and he realized the rest of the crew would get stuck if they parked inside the fence, so he told them to park outside the fence.
When the game was over, the group who parked outside the fence got in their vehicle and left the scene. The official in question got in his vehicle and as he was trying to make his way up the slippery incline, his wheels started spinning. According to the official, he accelerated to keep from getting stuck, but noticed a couple of Aberdeen cops either standing in the way or standing just outside the gate. He bumped his horn for them to get out of the way and to watch for traffic outside the fence so he wouldn’t run over anyone.
Apparently, the cops in question got ticked off because he bumped his horn at them, so they stopped him before he could get out of the gate. They made him put his hands on the wheel where they could see them and did not let him call anyone. They kept him for approximately 15 minutes, harassing him the entire time.
At no point were AD and game administrator Wendy McCullough or principal Reedell Holmes within sight of the incident, according to the official.
While all this was going on, a crowd began to gather to watch the spectacle and then three or four more police cars arrived and surrounded the official’s vehicle. He asked the police to summon the game administrator (McCullough), but was told that she was no longer there. After they finally let him out of the car, they gave him a ticket for reckless driving. Then they held him there for approximately five more minutes to let the traffic thin out before they allowed him to leave.
According to the official, the Aberdeen police treated him like thug and accused him of trying to run them over with his vehicle.
At some point, the official managed to call Larry Riley of Verona, who is the assigning official for the district. An intermediary was immediately sent to the stadium to try to resolve the situation. By that time, Holmes had arrived on the scene and the intermediary asked Holmes to take charge of the situation. Holmes declined, saying that it was now a police matter. The intermediary disputed that fact, saying it had happened on school property and the police were there at the school’s request. Again, Holmes declined to intervene.
In an effort to resolve the situation, the school was contacted Monday morning via a letter which made three demands: 1) the ticket was to be dropped and a letter was to be issued that nothing would go on the official's driving record now or in the future; 2) an apology was to be issued to the official by the school; and 3) a plan of action for dealing with the officials assigned to Aberdeen was to be put in place.
Larry Thomas, head of the officials for the Mississippi High School Activities Association, was also contacted and apprised of the situation. He assured the local association that this was a local issue, but said it had the MHSAA’s full support.
How can kids learn respect for authority, obedience to the law (rules) and humility (the ability to admit when you are wrong) when the administrators can't/won't exhibit such themselves. Fact is, AHS is loaded with talent and after years of dismal performance on the gridiron, they finally have a coaching staff that cares about the boys and that is willing to work hard and help them realize their potential. Instead of getting the support they need, the team and coaching staff are being victimized by shoddy administration leadership with thinly veiled racial overtones.
Give the officials what they want. Give the boys and the coaches what they need. This could be Aberdeen’s year if the people at the top will just back off and get out of the way.
This is one in a long line of complaints about the Dr McCollough, but that's what you get where you hire someone with zero background in athletics to be your AD. The school has great coaches in Roy Hazel and Chris Duncan to respectfully and properly do the required job of an AD. It's easy to see that she is the type of person that can not handle her new found "power" and does not know how to do her job. It's not her fault, the school board is to blame for hiring an incompetent person to the position.
As for the Aberdeen police. The shape the city is and always has been in speaks volume for the job those guys do.
Larry Riley said it best, “The horrible thing is, the coach and the players have nothing to do with it and they’ll be the one that get the brunt of it." all because of the incompetency of adults in this situation.
As for the question "what will our children learn from this if they drop the ticket?"
With all the problems in the school and city -- I don't think "dropping a ticket" is going to be the lesson missed by the kids at Aberdeen.