The Utah High School Activities Association's Executive Committee voted to punish a high school principal and a high school drill team after holding separate hearings on issues stemming form this year's 5A State Drill Team Competitions.

The committee found Bingham principal Tom Hicks violation of sportsmanship rules that ask players, coaches, principals and fans to "abide by and respect officials' decisions."

Hicks was given a letter of reprimand, put on one year probation and fined $500, which is what the Executive Committee has fined prep coaches for publicly criticizing officials, said Bart Thompson, assistant director of the UHSAA. An additional $300 fine was added because Hicks is an administrator and the committee felt he should be held to an even higher standard.

"Principal Hicks started out doing things the right way (by bringing his complaints to the UHSAA staff)," said Thompson. "But then he didn't leave it at that. He called a judge unethical and incompetent in a public forum."

He defended his actions — and allegations — in the hearing Wednesday morning.

"My concerns were with competency and ethics," he said. "I never contacted the media ... I stand by what I said. I believe that judge was unethical and incompetent, and the evidence of that was the scoring."

Several members of the executive committee likened Hicks criticism of the judge, who recently moved to Utah from out of state, to blasting an official after a basketball game. Hicks said he felt it was a different situation altogether and didn't feel his allegations were out of line or unsportsmanlike at all.

"Do you believe this judge purposely cheated?" asked Highland principal Paul Schulte.

Hicks answered, "That is a harsher word than I would use."

Shulte pushed Hicks on the point saying that accusing a judge of deliberately scoring Bingham and Brighton lower was, in fact, cheating.

"I believe it was deliberately done," Hicks said. "But I will not make that allegation."

He said asked the UHSAA staff to look into the judge's scores, as well as whether Hillcrest's drill team, the eventual 5A champion, had broken a rule that doesn't allow teams to alter routines more than 16 counts between the region meet and the state meet.

The Executive Committee held a second hearing Wednesday afternoon where Hillcrest drill team coaches admitted they had made an error in altering the routine on more than 16 counts.

"Did they violate the rule? Yes," said Thompson. "The other issue was how to remedy the situation. It was decided that the outcome of the meet would stand. But it was also determined that there was a serious rules violation and that's why the committee voted to put the coaches on one-year probation, give them a letter of reprimand and fine them $500."

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