Al Sears
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"Al Sears" was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and bandleader.

Sears's first major gig came in 1928 when he replaced Johnny Hodges in Chick Webb's ensemble. Following this he played with Elmer Snowden (1931–32), then led his own groups between 1933 and 1941. In the early 1940s he was with Andy Kirk (musician)/Andy Kirk (1941–42) and Lionel Hampton (1943-44) before he became a member of Duke Ellington's Orchestra in 1944, replacing Ben Webster. He became one of Ellington's best-known soloists, and remained in his employ until 1949, when first Jimmy Forrest and then Paul Gonsalves took over his chair. He played with Johnny Hodges in 1951-52, and recorded the tune "Castle Rock" with him; the tune became a hit, but was released under Hodges's name. He played as a studio musician on a variety of R&B albums in the 1950s and recorded two albums for Swingville Records in 1960.

He also was in Alan Freed's band when Freed did live shows, being introduced as "Big Al Sears."

More Al Sears on Wikipedia.

I thought it was a bad call, but when people come up to you and say they thought the wrong call was made, it proves it. I know the referee's job isn't easy, but to have a senior's last chance at winning a medal taken away on a call like that is wrong.

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We do high-profile work, and we're a good company. We're not a fly-by-night company.

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We didn't run away from our work.

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I don't think we could have gotten a much worse draw. We came in here and I really thought we had a chance to win a couple of medals. This is really tough to take because they are two great kids and I had high hopes.

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Being in Venice, I wanted to make sure that place (Venice Community Center) was done right.

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I just reminded them that this was senior night and we were wrestling for the city championship. We didn't want them to come in here and ruin our party.

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That's not fair. He shouldn't have done that.

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