Report: New Jersey football parent banned from son's graduation for heated beefs with coaches, administrators

According to NJ.com and Point Pleasant Patch reports, dispute over backup quarterback's playing time results in ban to games, now attendance to school graduation

Taylor Balkom

Parents beware. Misbehaving at high school sporting events is becoming more scrutinized, with more severe consequences. 

The latest misstep and ban to make national news comes out of New Jersey this week when a parent will be barred from his son’s high school graduation due to strong disagreement he had with football coaches and school officials. 

According to NJ.com, Michael Ollendorf is contesting the ban which stems from his “multiple instances of inappropriate conduct,” over his son’s role on the football team. 

Ultimately, Ollendorf said he will comply with the ban, but “I don’t condone it,” he told the newspaper. “I don’t want the graduation ruined for anyone, including my son.” 

The graduation is scheduled Wednesday and Ollendorf plans to watch from a sidewalk. 

As first reported by Point Pleasant Patch, the issues between Ollendorf and the coaching staff began in September of 2023, when his son, the backup quarterback, wasn’t seeing action in blowout victories. 

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In one of the games, Ollendorf became so upset and verbally abusive from the stands that police were called, he was arrested and charged with disorderly content and he pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace. He was banned from attending any other Point Boro football games that season. 

Administrators granted Ollendorf permission back to the games for his son’s senior season in 2024. However when his son didn’t start again and saw limited action, Ollendorf was banned from school district property for alleged threatening phone calls to the school administrators including school superintendent Adam Angelozzi. 

Ollendorf denies threatening anyone.

He decided not to appeal the decision prohibiting him from Wednesday’s graduation. “I can’t find an attorney that will go up against the school,” he told NJ.com. 

• Since the pandemic, NFHS, the national governing body for high school sports, has taken a stand against unruly and abusive fans, coaches and parents with a #BenchBadBehavior campaign. 

“When fans, coaches and parents act poorly at high school athletic events, we ALL lose. Especially our students,” the campaign reads.

• According to multiple reports, fan abuse is a major reason for anshortage of referees throughout the country. Michael Cuneo of the Wilmington StarNewsing reports that a 2022 survey sent to nearly 20,000 high school sports officials across 15 states, reveals that 55% of respondents listed verbal abuse from parents and fans as the No. 1 reason for leaving officiating.

• When a series of attacks on game referees from fans coming out of the stands had been reported nationally, NFHS CEO Karissa Niehoff posted a video in 2022 in which her broadest message was “enough is enough.” She noted that the bad behavior throughout the land “is out of control.” 

• The Sac-Joaquin Section out of Northern California, implemented a card system last Fall, copying general soccer rule law that when a fan at a game doesn’t act right, they get either a yellow or red card. Yellow is a warning and red is an ejection, which carries a three-game suspension. Two red cards and fan is suspended for all games the rest of the season. 

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