Mason Holland Assaults Referee, Deserves Second Chance
Mason Holland pushed referee Jim Hamm before throwing him to the court.
A Florida high school basketball player lost his temper during a game on Monday night. Now, his future hangs in the balance. Eighteen year old Mason Holland was restrained by his coaches and a police officer after a bizarre and sudden attack against one of the referees calling the game between Holland’s team, DeSoto County, and their rival, Port Charlotte. Holland now faces expulsion as well as potential felony charges for his actions.
Jim Hamm had called a technical foul on Holland for pushing one of the Port Charlotte players in the face as the two were coming up the court. Holland took exception to the call, at first pleading his case, then pushing the referee. Holland starts towards the bench, then suddenly reverses direction and charges the surprised referee, pushing him again before picking him up and slamming him to the ground.
That’s when his coaches and the police officer surrounded the youth to make sure the situation didn’t escalate further. DeSoto County Superintendent Adrian Cline told ABC News that Holland can never again participate in any school-related extracurricular activities. Holland has also been suspended for 10 days and may face felony charges for assault. If that happens, Holland will likely be expelled.
Holland, however, told ABC News that, “I am going to finish school—I’ve already come this far and am not giving up now.”
And I, for one, hope that he’s right. While what he did was reprehensible, kicking him off the team and a suspending him for 10 days from school is punishment enough. He’s stated clearly that in spite of everything, he doesn’t want to give up on finishing school. It seems to me that if officials forbid him from ever returning, they’d be the ones giving up. On him.
Holland was adopted when he was 6 years old. According to Samuel Holland, his adoptive father, Holland was born to a mother who was addicted to crack-cocaine. He has received counseling for anger management since puberty.
Holland hasn’t contacted the referee since the encounter, but did tell the reporter, “If I could take it back I would.”
But he can’t. And he has to live with it. Just like DeSoto County Superintendent Adrian Cline will have to live with it if he doesn’t allow Holland a chance to get his degree.
I’m actually surprised this type of stuff doesn’t happen more often. Just last weekend, New York Jets strength and conditioning coach Sal Alosi was suspended without pay for the rest of the year after intentionally tripping a player from the Miami Dolphins as he made his way down the field to cover a punt. With examples like these set at the highest level of competition, it’s a minor miracle we don’t read about stories like this all the time.
Below is a video of the encounter. The confrontation happens around the 1:25 mark.
John Cave Osborne’s personal blog.
John Cave Osborne’s book website.
He will be allowed to complete his education in an alternative school if expelled. No, a 10 day suspension is not enough. Your advocacy is too weighty.
@Thomas—see Thomas, I disagree. You think he’ll finish that degree? I don’t. But I do if the place he’s grown accustom to will welcome him back. I want to repeat that I found his actions reprehensible. But three things make me lean toward forgiveness and a second chance.
He’s contrite. He’s had the deck stacked against him his whole life. And the assault happened during the course of an athletic event, which, IMHO, is different than it happening, say, in a hallway during lunch.
All that said, there could easily be things I don’t know about the young man that would sway me to the other side. Regardless, I appreciate your perspective as well as you taking the time to comment.
I don’t agree with your perspective that an attack during an athletic event is different from an assault at any other time. I couldn’t watch the clip (said it was a private video) but the description is alarming. If someone treated me like that, I’d press charges. I think the ref should do the same.
@Larissa—I hear you. There are two sides to everything. Many people agree with what I think. Many people agree with what you think. I’ll see if I can get a different video up.
@Larissa—I’ve got a new one up if you wanna check it out. Thanks for the heads up! I may not have ever known without it.
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I think he should be expelled and charged wth felony assault. The fact that it happened during a sports event makes it worse, not better. He violently assaulted someone over a game.
@Linda—I love it when you comment. No matter what side you’re on.
I have to say I agree with you, JCO. Kid has had the deck stacked against him all his life, like you said. Seems certain actions get chalked up as “youthful indiscretions” or “mistakes that shouldn’t be paid at the expense of his future” when we are talking about the wealthier classes. I think the kid needs to apologize publically and accept that if he is found so much as in the vicinity of trouble, he will be out on his ass. But he’s a kid and deserves one second chance.
Decked stacked against him his whole life? How about being adopted at 6 and receiving help for anger management? Sounds like he’s been looked after for a while now. His reaction was entirely inappropriate. The ref did not yell at him or do anything to provoke him! Being sorry doesn’t mean you get to not be held accountable. I think THAT is what we forget to teach children. They think saying sorry means you don’t have to suffer the consequences of making bad choices. He may be expelled, but he can still get his diploma. Just not at that school. He threw that man to the ground. He could have been seriously injured. He may be a kid, but what he did was alarming. Maybe if he pays for it now, he will really take his counseling seriously and learn to control his anger.
I don’t really have sympathy for this kid. I would be willing to bet that he has a history of unsportsmanlike behavior on the court–this probably wasn’t his first technical foul either. If he was mouthing off to the ref from the beginning, its obvious he has no respect for his coach (or knows that his coach tolerates that kind of behavior and there wasn’t going to be any repercussions), and he never should have been on that court. I would press charges if I was that ref. And if its found out that he has a history of unsportsmanlike behavior, then I would have some serious questions for that coach. High school sports are not a right, they are a privilege, and in today’s society, they are a stepping stone for college sports.
@JBoogie—You always leave articulate, well written and well thought out comments, and this one is no exception, but I simply couldn’t disagree more with what you wrote. Wasn’t his first technical foul? You’re right. It most certainly was not his first technical foul. Since he (at least initially) turned and walked toward the bench, I would guess it was his second technical foul, at which point you are disqualified. None of what happened on the court is any barometer of the amount of respect he has for his coach. As I said in a previous comment, there may be other facts about this young man which could sway me to your side of the argument, but as of yet, I’ve not heard those facts. You seem to assume them, and I’m not about to take a kids future away for assumptions.
@Rosstwinmom—ARE YOU KIDDING? Getting adopted at age 6 qualifies as being hooked up? Goodness knows what his first 6 years were like. And you don’t think being suspended from school for two weeks, getting kicked off of you basketball team super early during your senior season, suffering from the type of public humiliation that accompanies such an incident, and being subjected to the type of criticism you just levied aren’t punishment enough? Good grief. I’d say that’s a boatload of consequences, and the kid deserves just that. But to take away the best shot he’s got at obtaining his high school diploma? Again, unless there are facts I don’t know about, I hope that doesn’t happen. Being born to a crack addict and bouncing around various foster child facilities and finally getting adopted in the first grade hardly qualifies as being “looked after.”
First off: Mr. Osborne, ever since your blog on discovering that your wife was pregnant in the fastfood drive thru, I’ve been rediscovering you repeatedly, and you are fast becoming my favorite writer on parenting. Thank you for your writing.
Re this child… While I don’t think that a 10 day suspension is enough, I also think that kicking him out of school, even if he can go to a “reform school” and finish his education, is only asking for trouble. That’s how temper tantrums turn into lives of crime. What he did was assault, and he should have to deal with the assault charges in front of a judge. At very least, some community service through divert court and some court mandated anger management is required. However, who does it help to expel him? Nobody except lazy school administrators and teachers who have the ability to literally make their failures disappear.
@Radical Dad—WELL PUT. Well put, indeed. Especially the part about school administrators wanting to make the bad stuff just go away.
And thank you so much for your nice words. They were extremely well received. But please don’t thank me for my writing. Instead, let me thank you for your reading, as well as for your thoughtful comment on this particular story. I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season, my friend.
When a young person (I won’t say a “child” in this case as he was over the age of 18 when this happened) demonstrates such a marked propensity for violence, there’s also a public safety issue, John. I have teenage daughter and I absoutely would not be comfortable with her having to go to school with a person who has shown that he can go off like that when provoked. It’s not that I, or anyone else, lacks compassion for this young man’s circumstances. If he wants to finish high school, I am sure there will be options available to him, however, when this level of trust has been breeched, of course he’s not going to be welcome at the neighborhood high school. What he did went beyond poor sportsmanship. It was an assault, which is a crime.
This was not a “temper tantrum.” When my two-year-old yells and stamps his feet because I wouldn’t give him another cracker, that is a temper tantrum. When an 18-year-old (I believe?) lifts a man off the ground and slams him down after shoving him, over a call that was warranted in a GAME, that is unacceptable. Many people have had trials and tribulations and don’t resort to this kind of violence without provocation. The example set by this young man concerns me…how many younger children (who I know from experience often idolize these older players) saw this? I think that allowing him to return to school is a questionable decision. Allowing him to return to playing sports for the school would be completely negligent. I’ve seen years of the consequences of allowing high school students get away with inappropriate behavior…it’s not getting better, it’s rapidly escalating.
@starsitter—I agree with every single thing you said except that allowing him to return to school is a questionable decision. Again, I could be swayed if I knew more about him to that side, but knowing what I know, I hope they allow the young man to get high school diploma from DeSoto.
So, you’d be okay with someone who has acted in that manner being around your children then? Because that’s what your asking of other parents at that school…
@linda—Yeah, Linda. That’s what I’m saying. One of my best friends got in one of the gnarliest fights I’ve ever seen in my life in the middle of a high school football game. He paid the price, too. As well he should have. Punished severely. But he was never expelled. Nor were we scared of him when he returned to school. He’s one of the most successful divorce attorneys in all of Memphis right now. Not to mention a huge philanthropist.
But his story has nothing to do w/ Mason’s. OH, except that I think that both kids deserved a second chance. AGAIN, there may be some stuff out there about Mason I don’t know that would sway me to your side of the argument. But from what I know and what I’ve seen? HORRIFIC incidence which calls for termination from extracurriculars forever, as well as a stiff penalty on the school level, too.
After he’s paid the price? Yeah. I’d be okay with it. I certainly wouldn’t yank my kids from the school or anything.
We’re on different sides of this one, my friend.
Okay, so when some bully focuses on one of your kids at school and body slams them to the ground like in the video, I expect to see a compassionate posting about how the kid not only deserves a second chance, but deserves to stay in school with your kids.
See, that would never happen. It must be some guy thing that you think it’s okay when violent assaults occur in the course of sports. Brrrrrrrrrrr. John Caveman Osborne. 
@Linda—YES YES YES!!!
THIS is why I love you, so! *thumps chest with club before returning to his cave*
I knew you’d like that. heh.
Woo! I just got a little fired up when I read the post about lazy administrators. Where I work, administrators are anything but lazy. They work endlessly to keep kids in school, get them where they need to be in the classroom, and advocating on their behalf. When a kid is expelled, its usually because every. single. legal. option. to help that child has already been exhausted–not just because administrators want less to deal with. For those of you who make comments like that, I would ask if you even know a person in an administrative position? Have you ever sat down with a teacher and asked them what their job is truly like? (Especially in a low-income district?) The judgment of education professionals is astounding sometimes. The overwhelming majority of educators out there spend an incredible amount of time (in my case, more time than I’ve gotten to spend with my own family) practically raising other peoples’ children. Yet we are criticized and undermined at every turn.
Whew. Off my soapbox. @JCO–thanks for your response! I guess I take this a little personally because I myself am a varsity level coach, and if one of my girls pulled a stunt like this I would feel responsible for her actions. I would hope that my girls know before game time comes what I expect of them as athletes and young ladies, and I hope they have a healthy respect/fear for me enough not to pull something like this. Thats what I meant when I said he didn’t have respect for his coach. As a high school and collegiate athlete, I would have never even so much as looked cross-eyed at a referee for fear of my coach’s foot being firmly planted into my backside.
@JBoogie—Wow! That’s really cool…not just that you coach, but also that you were a collegiate athlete. I wouldn’t have pulled a stunt like that, either. Pulling one, though, I don’t think would necessarily mean the player doesn’t respect his or her coach. THOUGH, I owned 50% of a granite countertop company for nearly a decade (just sold out a few months ago!) AND, I must confess, whenever ANY of the guys did something egregious (thank goodness, nothing like what Mason did), I ALWAYS took it as a sign of disrespect for me.
SO, now that you further articulated it, I can totally see what you mean.
And, finally, I meant what I said about your comments. Regardless of what side you’re on, they’re always really well thought out and expressed. That makes debate so worthwhile. Thank you for reading, JBoogie. (can I call you J-Boog?)
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You have quickly become one of my fave reads at the ‘derby! And JBoog works too
@JBoogie—*that* was an extremely nice thing to say. I love writing for Babble. And one of the reasons are that I’m getting to “meet” people like you. Thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement. They made my day!
Here’s my problem John, you point to the kid’s trials and tribulations as if they somehow justify the behavior. Conversely, if this kid came from a completely stable home environment, would you then argue that the book should be thrown at him? If so, you are setting a double standard. If not, then his upbringing should have no bearing on the punishment he receives.
This is assault, plain and simple. If it were murder, would you look to his upbringing to justify a reduced sentence? Some might argue that his upbringing leads to a higher propensity for violence, and therefore should mean a stiffer sentence. I don’t think either way of thinking is correct, personally. Black and White actions have Black and White repercussions… period. His home-life is sad, but we cannot fall on that as a crutch to relieve him of responsibility. If the district has a policy that a student committed of a felony is to be expelled, then there’s no argument to be made. If not, let the legal system run its course, and then decide how to best position the student to learn and overcome… in the end it’s up to him.
I look at Michael Vick (whose actions I totally despise). His actions put him in a position where his life could have been completely ruined, but he learned, made a decision to improve himself, and look where he has come.
At the end of the day, it’s up to the student to decide what he wants to end up doing and becoming. All we can do is provide him the resources and support he needs if he makes the correct decisions, but we cannot make those decisions for him.
@Mayhem—I did point to his past. But I’m not clinging to it when I say that I think 10 day suspension from school and being banned from extracurriculars forever is punishment enough. That’s what I think whether he was raised by crack fiend or the King of England.