[drinkeii]

I worked a set of games a couple of weeks ago with a partner whose mechanics seemed a little off. I chalked this up to the fact that he had worked 11 games in a row the day before, and 5 before I got there that day.

Then, after about a game and a half, I noticed he didn't have a PIAA patch on his shirt. This, coupled with the wierd mechanics, prompted me to ask at halftime if he was a high school official. He said, no, I've been helping out the assignor for these camp games for 3 years. I'm a college player.

This raised some concerns. He made some obviously incorrect calls, based on not knowing the rules, and also tended to ignore a decent amount of contact that I was in no position to call. He also made a comment when I mentioned to one of the girls about lane restrictions on free throws, and she said "Oh, I didn't know that", he said "I didn't know that either". Not a comment you want coming from an official, stating that they didn't know the rules.

As a coach, I had a non-qualified official work with a very good official, several weeks ago on a game. It was extremely high contact, but little was called, and almost nothing by the non-high school official. He followed the ball, missing a large number of hip shoves on shots that several times resulted in my players landing awkwardly on the floor or falling to the floor, and one rolled ankle came out of that as well. He never looked off the ball, regardless of where he was on the floor. I complained a number of times, until he came over and told me I needed to be quiet or I would get thrown out. I resisted the impulse to say that he needed to T me up twice to throw me out (I doubt he could justify a flagrant for my complaints... no language was involved - I was just asking him to call some of the contact down low before someone else got hurt), especially since there was a minute and a half left in the game. I didn't find out until 2-3 days later that it wasn't even a HS official on the game, when his partner, who I've worked with several times, came over and apologised for his partner (the non-qualified official) and his actions during the game. I could tell the qualified official was trying, but it just didn't keep the game under control. This was a rec league game, BTW, HS JV Boys.

Any suggestions on how to handle either of these situations? Seems like it isn't such a great idea to have people that don't know what they're doing reffing HS Varsity and JV games, regardless of wether they're camp games or rec league or whatever.