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Jurassic, I didn't get the impression that Rainmaker had any doubt about the act or the intent. The doubt was what we, as officials, should/would do. Just because an evaluator SAW the game does not mean the evaluator SAW this play. Rainmaker did not say it was a "trained" evaluator. What is a "trained" evaluator anyway?
There is a reason why we do something and a reason why we don't do something. The reason(s) for not ejecting this player have been explored and I can understand them although I don't totally agree (since I wasn't there with the whistle in my mouth it is hard to say one way or the other for sure). Nobody has yet pointed out a rule that fits this situation other than a flagrant with ejection. On the other hand if we explore the reasons to eject this player it fits nicely into a rule in the rule book and the only possible debate would be whether it was an attempted/connected punch/swing. From the description given it was premeditated and the intent was to swing and make contact.
Whether the verbage "cover your a$$" is used or not, officiating today is ultra-competitive and situations like this can make a difference. Maybe that "day" has come. For various reasons (scholarships, contracts, shoe deals, etc.) this sport is high-stakes and it starts to become this at lower levels. Everything we do or don't do is scrutinized a lot. I don't know if Rainmaker is a camper but if she is I know some of the evaluators on the West coast. They will jump on this like white on rice and the whole time other campers on the side will be happy that the call wasn't made. This is the reality of officiating today whether we like it or not. Maybe it isn't that important to Rainmaker or she doesn't have those aspirations. I just don't see this as a call that is all that much different from other tough calls. This is a situation I would love to have in a game at a camp this summer. I think we all have read different reasons for making different calls and we will make that decision based on our own interpretation of what we feel the correct call is in addition to advice from our fellow officials/mentors.
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