[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally posted by ref18
Today I had 5 games, all of them 12-13 year olds.


About 2 minutes into the third game, the ball is thrown in, front court control is established by dribbling, the dribbler looses control and the ball goes into the back court. The dribbler goes to recover it, my partner calls over and back. The coach went ballistic, standing and screaming, "SHE DIDN'T HAVE CONTROL, HOW CAN YOU CALL THAT ect..." I go by him, tell him that's enough and give him the stop sign. He continues, WHACK, I assess the first T. At which point he doesn't seem to get the hint, "HOW CAN YOU T ME UP, YOU MADE A BAD CALL, SHE DIDN'T HAVE CONTROL..." WHACK, I give him another. Inform him he's ejected, to which his assistant replies, "HOW CAN YOU EJECT HIM OVER THIS, SHE DIDN'T ESTABLISH CONTROL OF THE BALL, WHERE'D YOU LEARN TO REF!!" WHACK, I give one to him, then the coach says he's refusing to leave the gym, so I inform the timer to give me a five minute countdown, and then tell the coach that if doesn't vacate his position within five minutes the game is forfeited. He leaves immediatly and the remainder of the game goes on without incident.

Now these games are played with 8, 4 minute shifts, for fair play, and the convenor of this age group who also happens to be the president of the league, and this happens to be one of the biggest leagues in the province, comes up to me and starts explaining to me, how everyone's a volunteer, and that I shouldn't be T-ing anyone up. I tried to explain to him what happened, and how it happened, but he just kept on going until he said somethat that really shocked me, "Do you know who you just ejected?", I couldn't believe he said this, I said, "What does that have to do with anything?", he told me that this coach was "One of the most important people in the basketball community" At which point I replied, "I treat everyone equally when it comes to technical fouls." He said, told me I'm putting myself ahead of the game, at which point I walked off to resume the game.

Now in my report to the assignor about the ejection, I'm thinking about mentioning that, just because I felt he was totally out of line to say that. Any thoughts??

Ref18:

Inquiring minds want to know. Just who did you toss?

MTD, Sr.