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Brad Kooyman |
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September 01 |
Eddy Roberts |
At half-time, Coach Kooyman of Highland rushed towards the referees, interrupting their half-time conference, and in a very loud and public manner excoriated them for the officiating of the first half. As the referee, I found the manner of approach, tone of voice and volume to be offensive and abusive. Additionally, the public nature of his comments, in the middle of the field at a loud volume, served to further agitate the Highland supporters resulting in an increase in offensive comments from the stands.
After an attempt to verbally deescalate the situation, which was totally ignored by Coach Kooyman, he was shown a red card and disqualified from the remainder of the game for violation of NFHS Rule 12-8-2(f) a player, coach or bench personnel shall be disqualified (red card) for using insulting, offensive or abusive language or gesture.
and
Rule 18-8-2(b) a player, coach or bench personnel shall be disqualified (red card) for taunting - use of WORD or ACT to INCITE or DEGRADE an opposing player, coach, REFEREE or other individual. (emphasis mine).
To his credit, when shown the Red Card, Coach Kooyman shut his mouth, and calmly left the vicinity of the game. He returned at the conclusion of the varsity game and met with his team, but stayed well away from the officials. He was in the area of the game throughout the JV game, but did not attempt to coach and made no comments to the officials. |