Despite losing to Camden High School in the Group 2 basketball semifinal on an indisputably bad call, Manasquan High School was denied its bid to New Jersey’s Board of Education to overturn the call and place Manasquan in Camden’s place for Saturday’s championship game against Newark’s Arts High School.
The simple reason for the denial, acting commissioner Kevin Dehmer wrote in a letter Friday, was that the call was final, conclusive and unrevivable.
“The Commissioner cannot find that the officials’ decision regarding the basket was anything other than a judgment call, and the NJSIAA rules clearly state that once an official has made a judgement call, no appeals will be honored,” Dehmer wrote. “Even if the officials’ decision was not correct, under the clear and explicit bylaws of the [New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association], it is not reviewable.”
Dehmer cited NJSIAA rules, which Manasquan and other members agree to follow, instructing that protests based on officials’ “judgment or misinterpretation” of game rules “will not be honored.” He also referred to a state statute indicating the commissioner must decline to hear an appeal when NJSIAA rules say the matter is not appealable.
As Sportico detailed, Manasquan had defeated Camden 47-46 on a last second shot that a referee said counted and that video and photographic evidence confirmed should have counted. However, without the benefit of instant replay—NJSIAA rules forbid replay—the game’s three referees and an NJSIAA official conferred at half court to reverse the call, concluding (wrongly) the shot hadn’t gotten off before the buzzer went off. Camden thus won 46-45. NJSIAA admitted the reversal was in error and that the shot should have counted, but insisted it lacked authority under its rules to change the call.
Litigation involving bad calls tends to fail. One big hurdle is the plaintiff is a member of a voluntary sports organization whose rules say even bad calls can’t be reversed after a game ends. Judges are also leery of interjecting themselves into sports disputes when the harm—the wrong team lost the game—is arguably not the kind of harm the legal system ought to remedy.
That could open Pandora’s box to more lawsuits of its kind.
