A combination of racial slurs and questionable refereeing during the Western Maine Class D schoolboy title game at the Augusta Civic Center has led administrators at the Hyde School in Bath to pull their boys basketball team out of the Maine Principals’ Association and rejoin the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council.
The girls basketball team will remain in the MPA.
Malcolm Gauld, the president and chief executive officer of the Hyde Schools, said students and faculty at the game against Forest Hills of Jackman heard the slurs in the crowd, including the N-word.
Forest Hills won the game 64-50 on Feb. 21 and sank 28 of 45 free throws, including 16 in the fourth quarter. The game was televised by MPBN.
Gauld said the racial slurs and the discrepancy in foul shots left a bitter taste in the mouths of the players, coaches and fans.
“Our people were really rocked by this particular game,” he said. “Maybe [Forest Hills] would have beaten us anyway.
“But it didn’t feel right,” he added.
He also pointed out that Hyde attempted just six free throws. Four Hyde players fouled out.
“I’d be curious to know if there had ever been a disparity that great in a tournament game,” posed Gauld. “Maybe there has been. My guess is that there hasn’t been.”
Gauld, who was at the game, did not hear the racial slurs but was told about them.
However, he said he did get into two verbal altercations with fans who were abusive to his players and school.
“One of them was calling our players [juvenile delinquents] and telling them to go back to reform school,” said Gauld who confronted the fan and informed him the players didn’t come from reform schools.
“Why would someone say something like that?” asked Gauld.
The Hyde School is a private boarding school for grades 9-12 and postgraduates. Gauld said they have students from 30 states. Ninety-nine percent of the 150 students are boarding school students. There is also a school in Woodstock, Connecticut.
Gauld discussed the situation with his coaches, players and fans and said the “tandem of the racial slurs and officiating” led them to believe leaving the MPA for the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council was in their best interest.
“This is what’s best for the kids,” said Gauld.
Dick Durost, executive director of the Maine Principals’ Association, said he didn’t learn of the racial slurs until Laura Gauld, the head of the Hyde School and Malcolm’s wife, sent him an email about them last week.
“The frustrating thing on my part is if anyone had said anything to our staff at the game, it would have been addressed on the spot,” said Durost who indicated that those fans spewing racial slurs would have been removed from the premises.
“I know and respect Laura Gauld enough that if she tells me there were racial slurs, I believe her 100 percent,” Durost said. “We have staff members who are responsible for making sure their diversity is respected.”
He said the three key MPA staff members at the game — MPA basketball committee chairman Ryan Wilkins, site director Doran Stout and Maine basketball commissioner Peter Webb — were not informed about the slurs at the game.
Webb said he didn’t hear any in the approximate 10 minutes he spent at the game.
Durost said he received an email from Laura Gauld 10 days after the tournament and she expressed the concern that there were no officials on Hyde’s recommended list who were in the game.
Schools submit lists of referees they would like to referee their games.
“There was a legitimate reason,” explained Durost. “Five of the people on their list didn’t get enough votes to qualify for the tournament pool.”
He added that another had a relative who worked at the Hyde School.
Durost said from time to time, there are games with wide discrepancies in free throw attempts.
“Sometimes, you have a team trying to get back into a game by fouling,” said Durost.
Webb said the discrepancy in fouls “is not normal but it isn’t unusual.
“If a team is playing aggressively, they’re going to have more fouls,” he said.
“If someone has a question about [how the game was officiated], the answer is simple: Watch the video. Break down the game,” said Webb. “There was a quality crew of officials.”
Webb has not watched the video yet but said he doesn’t believe the officials or any officials favor one team or another.
Boys and girls basketball are the only sports in which the Hyde School participates under the MPA umbrella.
They play in the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council in all of their other sports.
The school has been in and out of the MPA in basketball. It had both high school and prep school teams at the same time, although Gauld said the school hasn’t had a prep school team in 15 years.
Hyde won the Class C state title in boys basketball in 1980 and 1981 and the Class D state crown in 1997.
Hyde left the MPA after the 1981 state final because Gauld said they got tired of hearing the anti-private school complaints.
“People said we shouldn’t have been in the league so we said ‘Why put up with this?’” said Gauld, who has been affiliated with the school for 40 years.
Hyde decided to return to the MPA in 1987 for several reasons, according to Gauld.
“I love the [MPA] tournaments,” he said. “When you play prep school games, you’re playing in front of girlfriends and parents.”
He said there will be advantages to returning to the prep school league.
“We have had trouble scheduling games [in the MPA]. Now we won’t. And now our fifth-year students will be able to play,” he said. “It will be nice to be in a league with the same types of schools.”
Fifth-year students aren’t allowed to play in the MPA.
There will be more travel, but not nearly as many MPA regulations pertaining to things such as when a team can start practicing.
Gauld won’t rule out a return to the MPA.
Durost said since Hyde is still a full member, its boys basketball team can return at any time without having to get permission from the MPA.
“We welcome the fact their girls basketball team will still be with us, and from time to time, they’ll have an individual swimmer, wrestler or tennis play who can compete [in MPA events],” said Durost.
Gauld said he has the utmost respect for the MPA and said the association once granted a waiver to one of their student-athlete to participate in sports in his fifth year after he missed an entire year due to health issues.