Tweets About Ref Earns Coach A Fine, Punishment

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association has reprimanded Jeffersontown boys’ basketball coach Jeff Morrow for critical postings he made about a referee on Twitter after a game this month. 

 Morrow used his Twitter account to call out referee Tom Wallace, who counted a last-second basket that gave Bullitt East a 56-54 overtime victory over J’town on Jan. 14 in the quarterfinals of the Republic Bank/Coca-Cola Louisville Invitational Tournament. 

 TV replays showed that Derek Willis’ basket came after the buzzer, meaning the game should have gone to a second overtime. 

 KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett said he is not aware of any coach previously being penalized for a posting on a social network. It’s the third time in four seasons that Morrow has been penalized for KHSAA rule violations. 

 The association ruled Morrow violated the organization’s Bylaw 11 concerning sportsmanship and issued the following penalties: 

 The J’town boys’ basketball program was fined $1,500. 

 Morrow loses coaching-box privileges for three games and is confined to the bench.

Morrow must appear and make a public apology at the next regularly scheduled meeting of Kentuckiana Basketball Officials.

Morrow must make public presentations at in-service professional-development sessions to Jefferson County coaches, administrators and principals on the subject of negative media relations and improper or inappropriate use of social networking.

Morrow will appear as a presenter at the 2011 HYPE Student Leadership Conference and discuss the subject of acting while under stress without regaining one’s composure.

“Public coaching commentary about officiating is a natural part of the contest,” Tackett said in a release. “But when the individual names or positions are used by the coaches in such criticism, it crosses the line of what’s permitted.”

Morrow has spent two games confined to the bench — Saturday against Tates Creek and Tuesday against St. Xavier — and will complete that penalty Friday against Male. He said he will pay the $1,500 fine himself.

“I don’t think it’s fair to have the school pay it,” he said. “They’re not the ones who did it.” 

 Morrow said he let his emotions “get the best of me.” 

“I regretted it shortly after it happened,” he said. “I’m sorry that it happened, and I’ve learned from it and it won’t happen again.”

He said he hasn’t spoken to Wallace, but “I plan to speak to him when the time is right and apologize.”

Morrow was suspended four games during the 2007-08 season for violating recruiting rules, and he was suspended for the first eight games of the 2008-09 season after violating rules concerning the summer “dead period,” when coaches are not allowed to watch or have contact with their players.

J’town athletic director Jeff Edwards said that he talked to Morrow and that the program “is moving on.”

“I think we’re all on the same page that we’d rather not see these things happen,” Edwards said.