The Penalty Box
February 10, 2021 at 3:08 a.m.
The Penalty Box
By Roger Grossman-
in Northwest Indiana
The IHSAA’s office phone was ringing late a couple of Friday night’s ago.
I am not sure if they have their office number forwarded to someone for those calls after hours, but I am willing to bet the person who either answered the phone or listened to message said “oh no, not again.”
The call was about an incident during the boys basketball game between Lighthouse CPA and Bowman Academy.
The game was at Bowman, and as happens from time to time, the visiting team was feeling like the officiating was a little skewed toward the home side.
The intensity of the game ramped up in the third quarter, and the calls against Lighthouse mounted.
Lighthouse CPA Athletic Director Lawrence Sandlin was ejected from the building for his display of contempt for the officials and the end of the third quarter.
With 6:32 left in the fourth quarter, Lighthouse was called for traveling.
That’s when the “incident” occurred.
Head Coach Nick Moore pleaded his case to anyone who would listen, and when no one would, he reached behind him and grabbed a chair. An assistant stopped him from doing what it looked like he was preparing to do, and Moore put the chair down.
But he immediately shuffled 10 feet down the sideline and grabbed another unoccupied chair and went all Bob Knight on ‘em, heaving that chair across the floor. It came to rest under the basket closest to that bench.
He was immediately ejected from the game, and as he was leaving the floor he grabbed another ball and flipped it out onto the court after reaching for a second chair.
As the final buzzer sounded, another LCPA coach grabbed a chair and sent it skidding across the gym floor.
Fortunately, no one was injured by any of the objects thrown onto the court.
The IHSAA committee watched the video, talked to those involved, and Commissioner Paul Neidig issued the following statement: “There is simply no place in education-based athletics for this type of poor behavior. This adult behavior will not be tolerated. I commend the Lighthouse CPA administration on their swift action in dealing with the situation and expect a positive change in the expectations and standards moving forward.”
Nick Moore was fired as head coach by the school four days later, and the IHSAA suspended the athletic director for a few days for his misbehavior.
The state also put LCPA on probation for the remainder of the season.
For background, the coach was a player who won a state title at Bowman, and he was coaching against his old school in the gym where he played.
And the teams had already played once this season, and we know that familiarity breeds contempt.
No excuse for what happened—none.
Lighthouse will continue their regular season as scheduled, and they will be eligible for the state tournament in March.
You initially might be upset, like I was, that the punishment was too light.
And they you watch the video of more of it—the context of it—and you realize that the kids handled the whole situation a hundred times better than any of the adults who were supposed to be leading them.
None of the players even got so much as a technical foul.
Good for them.
The IHSAA has had to deal with so many of these situations recently, and almost all of them in the northwest part of the state.
Bowman Academy had players playing that didn’t go to their school.
Griffith had their season ended by the IHSAA because of a fight their team was involved in, but a judge got involved and forced Griffith back in.
East Chicago Central’s coach called the officials racists for calling the foul that put Kyle Mangas at the line to win the regional semifinal in 2017, then doubled down on it by saying the IHSAA never assigns region-based officials to work that regional.
We could keep going and going.
Here is the question: If you are an administrator at Lighthouse CPA, how do give this athletic director the reigns back when he acted like that? How does that whole “sportsmanship” conversation go before each sports season?
He can’t possibly lead it himself.
Honestly, at a public school like the ones in our area, that man would be searching for work, too.
A tip of the cap to the IHSAA for punishing those that needed punished, sending the message that needed sent and showing mercy to the players who did nothing wrong.
in Northwest Indiana
The IHSAA’s office phone was ringing late a couple of Friday night’s ago.
I am not sure if they have their office number forwarded to someone for those calls after hours, but I am willing to bet the person who either answered the phone or listened to message said “oh no, not again.”
The call was about an incident during the boys basketball game between Lighthouse CPA and Bowman Academy.
The game was at Bowman, and as happens from time to time, the visiting team was feeling like the officiating was a little skewed toward the home side.
The intensity of the game ramped up in the third quarter, and the calls against Lighthouse mounted.
Lighthouse CPA Athletic Director Lawrence Sandlin was ejected from the building for his display of contempt for the officials and the end of the third quarter.
With 6:32 left in the fourth quarter, Lighthouse was called for traveling.
That’s when the “incident” occurred.
Head Coach Nick Moore pleaded his case to anyone who would listen, and when no one would, he reached behind him and grabbed a chair. An assistant stopped him from doing what it looked like he was preparing to do, and Moore put the chair down.
But he immediately shuffled 10 feet down the sideline and grabbed another unoccupied chair and went all Bob Knight on ‘em, heaving that chair across the floor. It came to rest under the basket closest to that bench.
He was immediately ejected from the game, and as he was leaving the floor he grabbed another ball and flipped it out onto the court after reaching for a second chair.
As the final buzzer sounded, another LCPA coach grabbed a chair and sent it skidding across the gym floor.
Fortunately, no one was injured by any of the objects thrown onto the court.
The IHSAA committee watched the video, talked to those involved, and Commissioner Paul Neidig issued the following statement: “There is simply no place in education-based athletics for this type of poor behavior. This adult behavior will not be tolerated. I commend the Lighthouse CPA administration on their swift action in dealing with the situation and expect a positive change in the expectations and standards moving forward.”
Nick Moore was fired as head coach by the school four days later, and the IHSAA suspended the athletic director for a few days for his misbehavior.
The state also put LCPA on probation for the remainder of the season.
For background, the coach was a player who won a state title at Bowman, and he was coaching against his old school in the gym where he played.
And the teams had already played once this season, and we know that familiarity breeds contempt.
No excuse for what happened—none.
Lighthouse will continue their regular season as scheduled, and they will be eligible for the state tournament in March.
You initially might be upset, like I was, that the punishment was too light.
And they you watch the video of more of it—the context of it—and you realize that the kids handled the whole situation a hundred times better than any of the adults who were supposed to be leading them.
None of the players even got so much as a technical foul.
Good for them.
The IHSAA has had to deal with so many of these situations recently, and almost all of them in the northwest part of the state.
Bowman Academy had players playing that didn’t go to their school.
Griffith had their season ended by the IHSAA because of a fight their team was involved in, but a judge got involved and forced Griffith back in.
East Chicago Central’s coach called the officials racists for calling the foul that put Kyle Mangas at the line to win the regional semifinal in 2017, then doubled down on it by saying the IHSAA never assigns region-based officials to work that regional.
We could keep going and going.
Here is the question: If you are an administrator at Lighthouse CPA, how do give this athletic director the reigns back when he acted like that? How does that whole “sportsmanship” conversation go before each sports season?
He can’t possibly lead it himself.
Honestly, at a public school like the ones in our area, that man would be searching for work, too.
A tip of the cap to the IHSAA for punishing those that needed punished, sending the message that needed sent and showing mercy to the players who did nothing wrong.
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