Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - A coalition comprising of Buffalo Urban Think Tank, Bennett High School Parents, school board members, We The Parents, football coaches and other advocate groups are throwing the penalty flag on the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) and the New York State Education Department (NYSED) to address ongoing and historical disparities in high school sports officiating.
The coalition alleges that the six white referees officiating the New York State Public High School Athletic Association West semifinal game at Cicero-North Syracuse High School threw a number of unjust flags during the first half of the game, that purposely put the game out of reach for the football players of Bennett High School.
With 1:57 left in the first half, a sequence of disputed events unfolded, starting with a penalty against Bennett. This led to an unauthorized huddle by the opposing team, Christian Brother Academy Syracuse, followed by Bennett's staff instructing their players to do the same, resulting in a further penalty against Bennett.
Michael House, Buffalo Schools Athletic Director, in compliance with NYSPHSAA rules, promptly lodged a formal protest against the penalty. The situation then escalated, causing a significant delay in the game, with the involvement of law enforcement, referees, and school administrators. Concerns about perceived biased treatment against the Bennett team were raised by AD House and Coach McDuffie.
“From my perspective, I want accountability. As the School Board representative of the Ferry District, Bennett is under my watch. Section VI receives close to $90,000 a year, and that money is sent to them for there to be representation of us. However, there was no representation available to us on that day," said Dr. Sharon Belton-Cottman.
Dr. Belton-Cottman references other several exclusionary behaviors that occurred that day, which includes the cheerleaders not having a space to change their into their uniforms, forcing them to change in the bathrooms as well as the referees failing to shake the hand of Bennett Head Coach Steve McDuffie, but shaking the hand of the other coaches. She also makes a call for investigation to New York Attorney General Letitia James.
"The efforts that went into making sure that Bennett did not win that game is a disgrace. I call for the Attorney General of the State, and I call for the federal government to take a look at what's going on in New York. As far as sports are concerned, there are multiple civil rights violations that are occurring and every one is looking the other way and no one is making it happen."
Sam Radford of We The Parents said the coalition is calling for a number of corrective actions to hopefully right the wrongs, which include a comprehensive and transparent review of the particular contested play, a decisive ruing from NYSPHSAA Director Robert Zayas on the protest filed McDuffie and Bennett's Athletic Director and a pledge from the NYSPHSAA, NYSED and NY Board of Regents to recognize to amend the issues highlighted by this incident by implementing "thorough policies that ensure fairness and equity for all student-athletes across New York State."
“Let’s just come up with a process to make sure that we get fairly called games,” Radford said. “We need to evaluate referees and see how good they are in other sports and the best referees from the regular season should be taken to the playoffs. We just want a process to make sure that we get to a fair place. We want all of that to be on public record.”
"We have to, in 2023, have diversity," said Bishop Michael Badger with Urban Think Tank of Buffalo.
"We want to see diversity. This is New York State, and to have six white men, that were hand picked, and no representation of the kids that are playing on the other side being there should not happen in 2023. So we're saying, as the Urban Think Tank, we can no longer tolerate this unfairness with our children, our children need to understand that we're going to fight for them and we're not going to allow them to work hard all year to be cheated at the end."