Mass. HS football -- weird ending

[WatterBoy]

Did you guys see or hear about this? Seems just plain crazy to me to call that a penalty. Click here to watch the video of it.

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Mass. title lost when player celebrates winning TD
By RODRIQUE NGOWI Associated Press The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 7:41 PM EST

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts high school lost a state championship game because a player raised his arm in triumph as he ran for what would have been a go-ahead touchdown.

The penalty for the gesture by Cathedral High School quarterback Matthew Owens in Saturday's Division 4A Super Bowl left the losing team Tuesday waiting for an official report from the state association to determine whether the school could challenge the referee's decision.

Blue Hills Regional Technical School athletic director Ed Catabia told The Boston Globe on Sunday that the referee made "a great call, the right call."

"We try and play by the rules, and the rule is 'no celebrating,'" he said.

The referee was enforcing a sportsmanship rule that prohibits players from celebratory or taunting behavior while scoring a touchdown.

The 18-year-old senior was racing for a score as time wound down in the game against Blue Hills. Video shows Owens briefly raising his left arm as he approaches the end zone. The penalty nullified the touchdown, and Cathedral lost the game 16-14.

Cathedral's athletic director James Lynch said the quarterback's instinctive move to raise his hand for a few strides as he approached the end zone could not be reasonably interpreted as excessive celebration, taunting or malicious.

"I just give people the analogy: imagine a basketball player making a clutch three-pointer right at the end of the game, and he turns around and he just kind of shakes his fist in the air kind of thing," Lynch told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "And it was simply just that and it was nothing else ... I don't think it was anything further than just excitement on the player's behalf."

Lynch added: "I think it was a wrong interpretation of the rule and I think that our players handled themselves in a sportsmanship manner ... for respecting the other team when they received the trophy in the award ceremony and how they handled themselves and how they composed themselves during the game."

Lynch said about a dozen football players are also on the basketball team and they reported for basketball tryouts and "just kind of moved past it. They understand that it was definitely a controversial call and something that should be looked into."

Owens' father told the Boston Herald that his son had a normal human reaction to an exciting moment.

Blue Hills principal Michael Barrett and Catabia did not immediately return calls or an email from the AP on Tuesday seeking comment.

[Bassboss]

Sportsmanship my F&CKIN @$$!?!?! Terrible, unsportsmanlike call by the ref! Any kid who watches football sees the team that scores a touch down celebrate, it's natural. You see your sports roll-models do it all the time, it's gonna be what you do too... I can't tell you how many times I saw people do Clay Mathews dance after doing something good. And what kind of rule is "no celebration"?! I can understand taunting an excessive celebration, being a rule, but NO celebration is ridiculous. Are they trying to take the spirit out of football?

I've been in position where the refs making a awful call in a big game take our win away. Evan on a professional level, refs are making crappy calls. I know how it the kids on the team felt.... so forgive me if I seem to be a strongly opinionated about this.

Speaking of crappy calls....

This is our rival school in Florida getting 2 touch downs that were clearly in taken away.. not to mention some just AWFUL refereeing!

[joedog]

Why is it unsportsmanlike to be happy about being succesful?
So if a tear is shed after a big important loss, is the player suspended?
Emotion always has been and always will be part of competition.

Our High School basketball team Tues. had a player make a 1/2 courter at the buzzer as he fell face down, never saw the basket. The stands emptied, fans, parents, players coaches. The game will go down in city history as well as the reaction by everyone.
Thats what sports are about.
They going to make Iaconelli through back fish?
When is Politically Correct going to end?

[rrw4258]

Sounds like a bunch of bullsh!t to me... Like Sammy said, you see them doing it on TV all of the time. It's not like he spiked the ball, and then made obsene gestures. He just raised an arm while running for god sake.

Ryan

[keithdog]

Just one more reason I'm loosing interrest in sporting events. There is a big difference in celebration and taunting. It's calls like this that ruin any game. Let the players and the fans have fun. A little modesty goes a long way but don't expect a player or a team who just scored the winning play to act like a bunch of dead fish.

[kennethdaysale]

B.A.S.S. and FLW tours are both considering imposing a fine or even ejecting any tournament angler that is heard saying..."Son" or "Oh there he is" or "thats the one I was looking for" or "Oh yea" or "Money fish!" etc. As a matter of fact they are considering asking Ike to wear a muzzle if they even allow him to compete at all.

[bassinbob]

The liberals have taken things too far. Sportsmanship is the team that was awarded the trophy should have given it to the team that was penalized. They were beaten. I couldn't go thropugh life winning like that. But that's just me.