45°
“My son is a freshman on the Hackensack basketball team and my nephew is on the varsity team,” Coleman told CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM. “Since the season started, I’ve attended most of the games and each time I was surprised by what appears to be biased calls in favor of Hackensack’s opponent by the referees.”
On Friday night, “the officiating at the Hackensack vs. Ridgewood game was the worst I’ve seen yet,” she said.
“The referees seemed to close their eyes when the Ridgewood players made flagrant fouls against the Hackensack team. At times the Hackensack fans were so frustrated that they yelled and begged for the refs to blow the whistle and make a call so the players did not get hurt.
“Instead of playing the five Ridgewood players on the court, our teams (freshman and varsity, especially) had to play against the refs too,” Coleman told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “It is very unfair that our children have to deal with this kind of double standard.”
Those who know Chrisema will tell you about her integrity, her fairness and decency, and her devotion to a trio of boys who are all athletically active and involved in healthy, productive lifestyles.
A Baptist who sees the good in just about everything, Chrisena simply is not the type to make this kind of a public statement unless she was 100 percent committed to her convictions.
“At one point in the freshman game,” she said in an email to CLIFFVIEW PILOT, “the refs made a call in favor of Hackensack — and reversed the call when the Ridgewood parents/fans complained.”
Friday’s varsity game, meanwhile, “reminded me of scenes from the movie ‘Glory Road’ based on the true story of how Coach Don Haskins lead the 1965-66 Texas Western Miners to a national championship with an all-black starting line-up,” she told the web site.
“After [Friday night’s] game, I approached some of the players and parents and they spoke candidly with me. The players seemed to have a ‘that’s just the way it is’ attitude and that really broke my heart,” Chris told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.COM.
“As a parent I am concerned, as a fan I am pissed off and as a journalist I am appalled this has appeared to go under the radar.”
So what’s to be done? I say: Let’s get to the bottom of this now.
{loadposition log}
Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates.
