[BillyMac]

Had a weird bad language situation this past year.

I worked a lot of games in a nearby four middle school town.

One middle school had so many students that it had two boys teams, white and blue, and I worked three games between these two teams, two regular season, and one playoff.

These kids knew each other well, ate lunch together, sat next to each other in class, so there was a lot of friendly trash talk in the games.

First game, in a five person conference, I warned two players and their coaches that, although the taunting trash talk was friendly, with no profanity, it had to stop.

Second game was uneventful.

Third game, two Black opponents, more friendly taunting trash talk, but one quietly using the N-word ending in an “a”, both with smiles on their faces.

Tough decision for me, a White guy, but I decided to again go with the players and coaches conference warning.

It actually was the toughest call of the year for me, I still lose sleep over it.

Context is important, at least I hope it is?

Months later and I'm still not sure if I did the right thing?

One consolation, at least I didn't ignore the situation.