Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard feels passionately about more than just Cyclones athletics. He is also a father, and as we know parents can become upset at sporting events and lose control of their emotions.
KCCI in Des Moines reports that Pollard was kicked out of his son’s high school basketball game on Tuesday night after making a comment to an official about a call. Pollard’s son plays for Gilbert High School, which ended up losing to Colfax-Mingo by a score of 68-55.
“The official went over to the scorers bench, at that point Mr. Pollard just told the official that he thought it was a bad call,” Colfax-Mingo School District superintendent Marty Lucas explained. The official took it as maybe being called out in front of the crowd, but again, everyone I talked to said there was nothing inappropriate. There was no foul language, not yelling — nothing like that.”
Pollard reportedly said he would have been “embarrassed” to make the call that the official made. The referee immediately asked school officials to remove him from the game, and the principal of Colfax-Mingo asked him to leave.
“Parents just get caught up in the game and Mr. Pollard got caught up in the game,” Lucas said.
A handful of Iowa State students were interviewed by KCCI (video here), some of who understood how Pollard could get wrapped up in his emotions as a parent and others who felt he should know better than to call out an official in front of everyone, considering he is a Division I athletic director.
From the sound of it, Pollard didn’t say anything overly disrespectful or cause a scene when he was asked to leave. In the future, I’m sure he will be more careful to take into account the fact that he represents Iowa State even outside of school-sponsored events.
H/T The Wiz of Odds
Photo via Iowa State athletics site
