[Ring'Em Up]

First, I disagree with the post "things like that happen with the shortage of officials in the area". Things like that do not happen. Officals are planned prior to any game. There are no less than 17 licensed officals in Floyd County alone. And with Allen's close proximity to Pike County, the use of officals from Pike County would have been feasible if NO OTHER official in Floyd County was available, although I sincerely doubt any other offical was ever asked to work the game.

Secondly, the issue goes beyond what is anyone's personal opinion. KHSAA is the licensing body for officials and I believe their view of the situation to be more important than any individual's assessment of whether of not the use of the official in question was okay. KHSAA clearly defines CONFLICT OF INTEREST for licensed officials. A conflict of interest exists if "If the offical has a child in school in one of the involved schools, or a child who graduated from one of the schools within the previous five years." Also a conflict of interest, "If the offical or the official's spouse is employed by any school fielding a team involved in a contest". Without question, the official had a conflict of interest and should have declined to officiate when contacted by Wesley.

Finally, if the offical in question had officiated a perfect game, which he obviously did not considering the other official overruled his calls multiple times, it would not have been enough to satisfy Adams. Wesley exhibited the ultimate in poor judgement by using the official. The appearance of impropriety is just as incriminating as actually committing the act of something improper. If the Wesley Christian School wants to give a speech about sportsmanship before their games, they need to follow the old adage "Practice what you preach".

First, Wrong. Obviously you've never dealt with trying to schedule officials for middle school/youth sports around here. People go to where the money is best and what is convenient to them. At this level, sometimes it's just within an hour or two from gametime that officials are finally scheduled and confirmed.
Second, Wrong. The KHSAAA could care less if a school's own coach were to referee the game himself at the middle school level. Or let's say your partner doesn't show up, you could put stripes on a stranger you meet in the parking lot and he could walk in and call the game with you. It's just common courtesy by a school to do the best you can to get licensed officials and to not have any conflicts.