It's not every day you wake up to the news a radio interview your morning show did, and a blog I wrote, have made the sports pages in the biggest media market in the US. But that was Sunday, when my Morning Rush cohost Travis Justice texted me a link to THIS STORY from the New York Post.
The story that continues to make the rounds is our interview with John Higgins, NCAA Final Four referee, Omaha business owner, and a longtime personal friend of Travis'. Higgins came on our show in mid-May to confirm the rumors that A) yes, he refereed at a high school freshman game at an AAU tournament, and B) he had to eject a father-son duo from that tournament for being terrible people who have no place in sports. (Click HERE for the original story)
John Higgins described a coach verbally abusing his own players, while the coach's son flipped Higgins off and said "you f***ing suck!" after the game. According to other witnesses, as horrible as Higgins' description of the game and the incident on the radio was, we've been assured it was much worse than he let on. Despite that, Higgins refused to identify the team, the coach, the players, or anyone else connected to the story.
Now, in a follow-up to this follow-up, Travis learned over the weekend that the coach has finally been fired from the team...but only after other AAU parents threatened to identify the coach and his son to the numerous media outlets who covered this story after our interview.
So a story about the sad state of affairs in youth sports has a (kind of?) happy ending- an abusive coach is finally relieved of his job because, by sheer happenstance, a well-known NCAA referee who has a voice in the media and a profile high enough to call the coach out for his terrible behavior, was working the game. Otherwise he might still be coaching, and verbally berating his players, and screaming insults at the teenage kids who volunteer to referee AAU games. And props to the parents who said they would identify the coach...you are becoming part of the solution.
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