Published Wednesday, March 4, 1998
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PENNSYLVANIA SCHOLASTIC SPORTS
Senator wants details of PIAA game system
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH _ As the Pennsylvania Senate prepares to investigate the PIAA, a committee member is suggesting that school personnel engage in a conflict of interest by being paid as ``game managers'' for PIAA championship events.
Senate Minority Leader Robert Mellow, D-Lackawanna, said the PIAA ``take(s) care of (its) system by making people game managers. They're so well taken care of, they try to protect their own interests.''
Mellow said he plans to ask questions about school personnel who run championship events, then turn around and vote on PIAA regulations and procedures as members of the PIAA Board of Control.
PIAA executive director Bradley Cashman seemed surprised that a state senator would ask about the possible conflict of interest. Cashman has been criticized recently for the PIAA's decisions to grant eligibility to Berwick High football star Gus Felder and to move the state football championships from Altoona to Hershey.
``I've never heard of it from that perspective,'' Cashman told the Scranton Times. ``It almost sounds like something less than honorable with the PIAA, and that's not the case. I'm sorry it was put in that context.''
The PIAA designates ``game managers'' to oversee its championship events, especially in the early rounds of PIAA championship tournaments when its four-man executive staff cannot attend each event.
Game managers decide who will serve in paid roles, such as official scorers, ticket takers and scoreboard operators. They are paid on a fixed scale based on the sport, with those in basketball receiving $75 for a single playoff game, $100 for a doubleheader and $125 for a tripleheader. They also are also paid a $25 bonus if the paid crowd exceeds 2,500.
The game managers handle all of the financial details, including the collection of gate receipts and paying the hired help.
Cashman defended the practice as essential to the proper running of a PIAA playoff event.
``I can't, our executive staff can't and our other staff members cannot handle all of the events,'' Cashman said. ``It's clearly not an old-boy network or a reward for what they've done. In many case, maybe the majority of cases, the members of the district committees (some of whom sit on the PIAA Board of Control) are . . . the most experienced (at running playoff games).''
Mellow wants to learn how the PIAA determines who becomes a game manager and how the money collected at PIAA events is accounted for and dispersed.
The Senate committee, which will have subpoena power, is promising a thorough investigation of the PIAA _ apparently, the first ever undertaken of the private organization that has regulated Pennsylvania high school sports for three-quarters of a century.
