MIAA Ends High School Career Of David Prouty Basketball Star After Referee Lies About Being Assaulted In Accidental Shoulder Brush

 

This is Fred Neiray, a senior basketball player at David Prouty High School in Spencer.

Fred has been on the Prouty varsity team since his freshman year, when they made the State Championship. He is an upstanding, well liked member of the community, who volunteers coaching and refereeing youth basketball in East Brookfield.

Fred was having an outstanding senior season, averaging 21 points per game, before it came to an end after a home game against Northbridge. During that game they were losing and Neiray became frustrated with a call against him made by referee Kevin Murray, the brother of former Lt. Governor Tim Murray.

After being called for a foul Neiray said to the ref, “that’s a soft call,” and was understandably assessed a technical foul. Sensing frustration, Coach Patrick O’Connor pulled Neiray from the game, but on his way to the bench he brushed shoulders with the referee. For that he was thrown out of the game.

The referee later reported the incident as an assault, leading to a one year suspension, which if upheld would mean that Fred’s high school career was over. Coach O’Connor, Athletic Director Thomas Miller, Principal Mary LaFreniere, and Superintendent Paul Haughey, appealed the suspension. They included letters vouching for his character, and at a January 27 appeals hearing in front of a 5 member board of appeals, Neiray issued an apology for what he claimed was unintentional contact with the referee. The board voted unanimously to uphold the suspension, ending any hope that he would play basketball for David Prouty again.

Fred’s father Ricky Neiray voiced his frustration with the process in an interview with the Telegram and Gazette:

“I just don’t see how this is a fair punishment at all. I have seen players get into fights on the court before and the most I’ve seen anyone get suspended for is a few games,” Ricky Neiray said in an interview with the T&G. “Fred is a kid in school, how does suspending him for the rest of his high school career helping him learn from this?”

The MIAA should have no tolerance for athletes assaulting referees, and if Fred did indeed assault Murray then his punishment would be warranted. But from the looks of two videos Fred did not make intentional contact with the referee, and in fact it looked like the ref may have made contact with him.

 

 

As you can see, Fred was walking towards the bench after being subbed out by his coach.

Fred slightly changed his direction towards his left in order to avoid walking into the ref, who did not change the direction of his travel.

Fred moved his right shoulder back, in an attempt to avoid contact with the ref.

If he were trying to intentionally make contact he would’ve led with his left shoulder, not backed away with it. Nonetheless, slight contact was made, but Fred was the only one of the two who attempted to avoid contact.

The contact was barely noticeable and neither party was knocked off balance as a result of the incident. But this didn’t stop Murray from turning around, staring down the teenager, and immediately ejecting him from the game.

Clearly this was not assault, nor was it intentional contact. The player was caught up in the moment and was appropriately assessed a technical foul for criticizing the ref. The ref was caught up in the moment and let his emotions get the best of him by throwing Neiray out of the game.

It’s understandable when people get caught up in the heat of the battle and act impulsively, as Murray did by tossing Neiray out of the game. But after he had a chance to compose himself Murray continued to insist that what you witnessed in that video was assault. I’m pretty sure if Neiray actually wanted to assault him the outcome would’ve been a lot worse for Murray than a light shoulder brush.

Sources tell us that Murray had a meeting scheduled with AD Miller, with the hopes that Murray would sign a paper for the appeal, stating that the incident was incidental and not an assault. Murray reportedly told the AD he would think it over, but continued to call it an assault in his official report that was given to the MIAA board of appeals. In their ruling the board claimed that Neiray “made purposeful physical contact,” and that the contact was intentional and “meant to intimidate the official.”

Clearly the video shows that the contact was not intentional or intimidating.

Nevertheless, Neiray issued an apology at the meeting, which took place on Zoom due to the snow storm:

“I take full accountability for my actions, and my intention was never to make contact with you,” Neiray wrote in his apology letter. “Tensions were high, and I let my emotions get the best of me. As a 17-year-old student who makes mistakes, and now having the time to reflect on my actions I understand how inappropriate they were. I strongly believe that I can and have learned from this mistake and will be better to officials moving forward as a leader and a captain. I know that I have many kids that look up to me in the community and I need to set a good example for them.”

I spoke with Neiray yesterday and asked him why he would apologize if he didn’t do anything wrong:

“I apologized to the official because it obviously came off to him as an assault and I knew after being ejected my entire career was in his hands.”

In other words, he knew that since Murray was insisting that it was an assault, that the board would believe him over a student who had just been assessed a technical foul. He thought his only chance to ever play high school basketball again was to throw himself at the mercy of the board and beg for forgiveness, assuming that the adults on the board would be normal, compassionate people, not looking to destroy a kid’s dreams.

Boy, was he wrong.

The MIAA is a multi-million dollar “non-profit” that has been ripping off schools in Massachusetts for decades. The LAST thing on their mind is the well being of the kids they supposedly exist to serve. Schools are essentially forced to join the association, pay them dues, and give them money from ticket sales for the privilege of existing. Were a school not to join the MIAA they would be ineligible for any postseason tournaments. I have written extensively for over a decade about this lucrative grift, and the adults who profit off of it. Their actions have shown time and time again that the last thing they think about are the students who they claim to serve in their mission statement.

According to their annual filings with the AGO, the MIAA took in over $6.5 million in revenue in 2024, including nearly $4 million from athletic events, and $1.27 million in “membership dues” from schools.

The taxpayers of Spencer are giving money to this corrupt non-profit so that they can hurt kids because a grownup referee had a hissy-fit and cried about being “assaulted.” Of note – assault is a crime, and Murray did not report this dangerous incident to police.

The MIAA pays several of its board members six figure salaries, including associate director Richard Pearson who made nearly $180K.

The meeting was not made public, and neither were the names of the 5 rotating board members who made the decision to end this student-athlete’s career. However, sources we spoke with tell us that three of the members were Phil Napolitano, who made a salary of nearly $110K last year working for the MIAA.

Framingham Athletic Director Paul Spear.

And Chelmsford Principal Stephen Murray.

They reportedly blamed Neiray for not walking around Kevin Murray and getting out of his way, but don’t blame Murray for failing to do the same with a kid.

Superindent Haughey issued the following, disappointing statement after the suspension was upheld:

“The MIAA has upheld a one-year suspension for a student-athlete regarding contact with an official during a boys’ varsity basketball game. Our administration appealed the decision, arguing that the year-long suspension was excessive,” Haughey stated. “I attended the appeal hearing to speak to the student’s character and his mistake, and I appreciate that the MIAA allowed me to participate in the process. While I advocated for the student, the rules are clear: Contact with an official is not permitted, and the MIAA applied their regulations consistently.”

Yes, the rules are clear, and so is the video. Fred Neiray did NOT make intentional contact with the referee, and thus the MIAA has NOT applied their regulations consistently. With people like this in your corner who needs enemies?

The suspension appears to be final, but a Change.org petition asking for Neiray to be reinstated has over 2,100 signatures, as of the publication of this story. You can add your name to the petition by clicking here. It might not change anything, but the adults who do this to student-athletes deserve to be named and shamed at the very least.