Noah Bjerke-Wieser had seen enough. The senior captain
of the boys basketball team at La Crescent-Hokah High School in the southeast
corner of Minnesota was frustrated and wanted to do something. The problem was
sportsmanship, particularly mistreatment of officials.
Last Tuesday evening, Noah went home after the Lancers
defeated Fillmore Central 62-53 in a Three Rivers Conference game in La
Crescent. Thinking of how people had acted toward the officials, he started to
write. He told his mom, Jamie, what he intended to say.
“I
went to her and I was like, ‘I think I'm going to post this. What do you think
about it?,’ ” Noah told me. “She said, ‘I don't know if you should.’ I told her
I feel like I should because it can help, it can only do positive things.”
He posted his message on Facebook at 10:18 p.m. and
the darn thing exploded. In 239 very well-written, very respectable words, he
asked everyone to think about what they had been doing:
“Hello Lancer
community, I am Noah Bjerke-Wieser and I would like to talk about our team’s
basketball game tonight. We all know that there were some controversial calls
but nothing is going to be perfect. As a captain of the varsity team I would like
to come out and say we need to stop yelling at the refs, us as players, and as
spectators in the stands. Nobody will ever call a perfect game and everybody
makes mistakes. We all get it is frustrating watching and playing in a game
where the officiating is not great. But we need to stop. It is hard enough to
get officials to ref a varsity game anyway, it doesn’t help when they
specifically don’t want to ref for a La Crescent game because they know they
will be getting yelled at. I personally would appreciate it if we could change
the “La Crescent way” and when refs see La Crescent on the schedule they WANT
to ref for us because of how great our team and fan base are. As players and
spectators we need to let the players play, the officials officiate, and the
fans cheer. I know I am not perfect in this too but we need to change. I hope
we can all come together as a community and change for the better. Thank you
for coming and supporting us but let’s support our team in a positive way.”
Someone sent me his
note via Twitter, and I posted it to my followers and also posted it on the MSHSL
Facebook page. The reaction was overwhelming.
--"Awesome read!
Proud of this high school student recognizing this issue. Kids just want to
play and have fun.”
--" Well said!
You sound like a great leader for your teammates & fans! Keep up the great
work!”
--"Every community needs to hear this. I hope this spreads like
wildfire.”
--" So cool to see a player writing this.”
Thousands of social media Likes and positive messages
later, Noah has been a little taken aback by the reaction.
“I didn't
think it was going to get that big,” Noah told me in Rushford on Friday night,
where the Lancers played Rushford-Peterson. “But after I really thought about it
as coming from a student, more people are going to think it's more of a problem,
right? Everyone said they've been super proud, that they’re glad I did that or
thankful I did that.”
He had seen
people treat officials poorly during games in La Crescent for a long time. Something
clicked after the Fillmore Central game, leading him to his keyboard
afterwards.
“I've
thought about it in the past and I didn't really think it was that big of a
deal,” he said of the treatment toward officials. “But that game really stood
out to me.”
La
Crescent-Hokah coach Ryan Thibodeau, who was unaware that Noah was planning to post
anything, said, “Number one, what a positive message. And it touches everybody
in this region and it touches everybody in the country. And there’s the
leadership piece of it, too. Until we started basketball this season, I didn’t really
see Noah as more of that vocal piece. And now to watch him act as a leader; I
know how hard he works and his teammates see that stuff. But to be able to
speak your opinion and not feel afraid of any sort of pushback was impressive.”
The MSHSL
and other organizations, including the National Federation of State High School
Associations, regularly post messages about the importance of officials and showing
respect toward them. Across the country, there is a shortage of youth and high
school officials, with mistreatment by fans among the biggest reasons.
It can be difficult
for those messages to sink in, but such a clear, powerful, honest statement
from a student-athlete takes it to another level.
“It's an
opportunity to learn and to teach about the message,” Thibodeau said. “It's
just a good, positive general message that's not pertaining to just one set of
individuals. And you know, a lot of it is made out to be the people in the
stands, but from my role, too, I was able to reflect on it as well; as a coach,
how are my players handling these adverse situations? I really just viewed it
as a powerful, general message on how we can all be better, how we can all be
more positive, and how we can all appreciate just being in the gym and being
together.”
Noah, who
also plays football and is a member of the golf team, spent a half hour or so
writing his message. His mom helped proofread his note before he posted it.
“I gave it a
lot of thought and tried to use the best words that I could,” he said.
He certainly
accomplished that, with words like these: “I hope we can all come together as a community and change for
the better.”
Noah’s message is one that should resonate across Minnesota
and around the country.
“As a
captain of the varsity team I would like to come out and say we need to stop
yelling at the refs, us as players, and as spectators in the stands. Nobody
will ever call a perfect game and everybody makes mistakes.”
As Noah and I talked at Rushford-Peterson, I asked
this question: “Have
you ever thought about becoming an official someday?”
He smiled
and said, “Yeah, I definitely want to be a basketball official and probably football,
too.”
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of
Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn
and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.
Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
