With his stepson on the team, Mike McCarthy has been a regular face in the stands at Notre Dame Academy's basketball games this season.
However, his actions after a tight loss at Pulaski crossed a line, according to people at the game.
"This parent chose to follow the officials and berate them, which is clearly unacceptable," said Janel Batten, Pulaski High School's athletic director.
Through an open records request, the Pulaski School District provided us security footage. There is no audio, but you can see a Pulaski staff member escorting the referees out of the gym with a man following behind. District officials confirmed the man is McCarthy.
"Some things were said, some language was used that we don't want in our gym. Unsportsmanlike language," Batten said.
We talked with one of the referees who did not want to talk on camera for this story but confirmed an "unfortunate situation" happened with McCarthy that the official described as a "verbal tirade."
The WIAA tells FOX 11 an abuse against contest officials complaint has been filed about an incident at the game. The WIAA says those complaints are confidential.
"This parent chose to follow the officials and berate them, which is clearly unacceptable." — Janel Batten, Pulaski High School's athletic director.
We asked Notre Dame Academy for an on-camera interview for this story, but we were sent a statement from athletic director Steph Mathu instead.
It reads, "The school has been contacted by the WIAA regarding last night's basketball game, and it's currently looking further into this situation. The school will continue to stress the importance of sportsmanship and respect to our students, parents, fans, and community members."
"Without those great officials, we can't have great sports, right? So that is important, so we've taken some measures in our conference, specifically at our school. We do things maybe that are a little different. We always escort these people to the court or to our stadium," Batten says.
Pulaski believes the system that's put in place prevented this situation from escalating any further.
