Cloverdale mayor ejected from youth basketball game for threatening referee

The mayor of Cloverdale was ejected from his daughter’s high school basketball game Friday night after threatening a referee, according to the president of the North Coast Officials Association.

Mayor Todd Lands was told to leave by two referees and had to sit out the following varsity game Saturday, said Gary Frieders, the association chief, who is in charge of assigning referees.

Two were assigned to officiate the 6:30 p.m. Friday game at Cloverdale High School against Middletown High School.

Lands walked over to the court to berate the two referees over a call, Frieders said.

“He came out of the stand and threatened the officials, saying, ‘If my daughter gets injured, I’ll see you out in the parking lot,’” Frieders said, according to the referees’ official report of the incident.

“What he (Lands) did was inappropriate all the way around. Me and my partner had no idea who he was,” Andy Noonan, one of the referees, said in a Press Democrat interview.

Asked about his reported ejection, Lands said, “There was nothing to it. It’s not newsworthy and I’m not going to comment.”

Noonan said it was the first time he’d ejected a parent from a youth game in a decade.

“I’ve been a referee for 40 years. It doesn’t happen very often.”

Police were not called to the game at Cloverdale High School and there was no indication Wednesday that authorities had been asked to intervene in the aftermath.

“It has all been handled by the (school) administration,” Frieders said.

Lands, 45, who owns his own construction company, was first elected in 2020 and was selected by the council in December to serve as mayor, a rotating position on the five-member council.

Gordon Hoover, president of the Cloverdale High School Eagle Pride Boosters Club said there were less than 50 people in attendance to watch the game, in accordance with the county’s current public health order limiting indoor gatherings

Hoover, who coaches the boys JV basketball squad, said he was at the game and witnessed Lands being thrown out. He said he didn’t hear what was said.

Noonan said Lands apparently disagreed with a call in favor of Middletown when the ball went out of bounds. He said at the time Cloverdale was losing badly and “there was no way they could win.”

“He told me I was ‘absolutely horrible’ and then confronted my partner, Larry Coffey, and said, ‘You’re horrible, too,’” Noonan said.

Both referees motioned for Lands’ ejection at the same time, Noonan said.

“A lot of times parents think the game is becoming too physical and could generate into a fist fight if we don’t call more fouls,” Noonan said. “But the game was not out of control; it was just a standard high school girls varsity game.”

The final score was 59-35 in favor of Middletown, a top-ranked team.

Superintendent Betha MacClain and Cloverdale High Principal Rani Goyal, who was present during the game, would only confirm Lands was asked to leave by the referees.

The only video Hoover knows that exists of the game is through a subscription service called NFHS available through YouTube but does not include audio.

Noonan said Lands was not in his face and was wearing a mask.

Noonan said he did not know Lands, and was not aware he was an elected official until a coach mentioned it later that night.

“Did you know you just threw out the mayor?” the coach asked Noonan. “And I said that’s not my problem. I don’t care if he’s the pope.”

Both the referee and the referee official said they have a hard time recruiting new referees because of abuse from fans, parents and coaches.

He said the average age of referees nationwide is 57 and they aren’t getting enough younger recruits to sign on to officiate.

Longtime Cloverdale Councilman Joe Palla said he hadn’t heard about Lands’ ejection until a call from a reporter Wednesday.

“It’s an unfortunate situation if it went down as reported,” he said. “I would want to get all the facts before I can comment on whether it was appropriate behavior or not.”

Other council members contacted Wednesday declined to comment.

Staff Writer Kaylee Tornay contributed to this report.

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5209.