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CUTLINE: An unidentified referee chokes coach Mickey Shaffer of Poyen as Shaffer's wife, Lynn Shaffer, comes to her husband's aid. The incident occurred Saturday during a seventh- and eighth-grade girls basketball tournament sponsored by Youth Sports America at the Court of Dreams facility in southwest Little Rock. (Photo by LaJuan Mooney, Saline County Voice) Referee chokes coach during basketball tournament Tuesday, May 20, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A coach who was choked by a referee Saturday during a basketball tournament said Monday he has no ill will against the official. Mickey Shaffer of Poyen said he was coaching the Lady Wings from Central Arkansas as they competed in the seventh- and eighth-grade girls' division of the Challenge of Champions tournament in Little Rock when he questioned a referee's call, and the referee, whose name Shaffer did not know, called a technical foul on him. Shaffer said he sat down but continued objecting to the call, and the referee called a second technical foul on him and ejected him from the game. Shaffer said he was "getting my two cents in" on his way out when the referee grabbed him by the throat and choked him for a few seconds. The choking, captured in a photo by LaJuan Mooney of the Saline County Voice, "looks a lot worse than it was," said Shaffer, who also is head girls basketball coach at Poyen High School. "It wasn't any drawn-out, all-over-the-place thing," Shaffer said. "It was just a quick, spur-of-the moment thing." The tournament was sponsored by Youth Sports America. Terrie Sossamon, operations director for the Maumelle-based organization, referred questions Monday to Tim Loring, the organization's national director. Phone calls and e-mails to Loring were not immediately returned Monday. The tournament was held at the Court of Dreams facility in southwest Little Rock, which has three courts. The referee who choked Shaffer was removed from the game he had been officiating and swapped with a referee from a different game on another court, according to witnesses. The Lady Wings - team members are from Poyen, Jessieville, Bauxite, Beebe and the Fort Lake community - went on to beat Team Arkansas, also from Central Arkansas, by nine points. The mother of a Lady Wings team member said the referee should have been ejected from the tournament. She said she plans to complain about his behavior. "He way overreacted, and he did a malicious thing in front of a lot of kids," said the parent, who asked that her name not be used. "When you're in that kind of position, you're supposed to be about sportsmanship and all this, and if you don't have any more self-control than that, you just don't need to be in that position." Shaffer said he did not complain about the referee's behavior and did not plan to complain. He said he regretted his own behavior in the incident. "I've been coaching for a long time, and sometimes things happen and sometimes you get madder than you should," he said. "I apologized to my team and my parents after the game. If I saw that guy, I would say, 'Man, I'm sorry.'" The Court of Dreams facility is owned by Positive Atmosphere Reaches Kids, or PARK, an outreach program founded by former NFL player Keith Jackson for children at risk of dropping out of school. Kareem Moody, program director for PARK, said PARK rented out the facility to Youth Sports America for the tournament but had nothing to do with hiring the referees. |
