Two players from Webberville were ejected for allegedly throwing punches during last Friday's game against Colon.
The first play in question shows Linebacker Kayson Lycos making a tackle on the ballcarrier. As both players get up, The referee throws the flag. In the second play, Nose Guard Ethen Stiffler is seen making a play on the person guarding him. In the video, no punches are seen.
Both players were ejected, and as a result are suspended from their next game.
"Obviously the ref saw something that no one else saw," said Kris Lycos, Kayson's father.
Lycos believes that there needs to be some sort of appeal process, where penalties like this are reviewed. But unlike Friday night's game at Colon, not all high school contests are filmed.
"We have to depend on that human element to be able to make those calls in the heat of the battle," said MHSAA Spokesman John Johnson. "There are always going to be disagreements about what a referee calls. But at the end of the day, what comes out of the site is what we have to live with."
"Things happen quickly," said Lycos, "So what we see and what actually happens may not be the exact same thing."
Johnson says that schools implement certain rules to enforce sportsmanship. Whether or not a call an official makes is correct, in the end, the official is the ultimate authority.
"All the official is doing is carrying out what the will of the school is."
Lycos isn't against the referee or mad at the MHSAA, he just wants on-field calls to be fair, justified, and corrected if necessary.
"If there's any reason that we're going to penalize a kid for something that they may or may not have done, you would want to get to the correct answer. If they didn't do it, they shouldn't be penalized for it," Lycos said.
