|
Just read the 5 page Post on "Statement Most Often Made by Officials". Some thoughts......
1. Does anyone ever wonder it Officating attracts a certain personality type? My oldest friend, who was just a great point-guard and is unbelieveable insightful about basketball strategy.....would never go near officating. He thinks I'm crazy. I tell him it is competitive which I like in the sense that your competing within yourself to do a good job. I tell him that it keeps me around the game which I loved. But honestly......do I like the "Power" a bit too? I know the answer in my case and it's not somethng I'm proud of.
2. Does it kill anyone else about how screwed up Youth Sports are? This isn't recent. I go back to the 60's from a HS Program that was ALL about winning. Unfortunately, for the kids that did play and didn't play...it wasn't enough about them learning life lessons.
I tell the kids I Coach that all the baloney that is pushed about Sports ='ing Life is nonsense. A sporting contest is about 1 event in time and a winner & a loser for one moment. It should be fun, kind of interesting - nothing more. I'm 55 and from what I see about life, it's about always being "ready to play, again". Too much guilt about losing is making kids not want to play and that's a bad thing.
Just about 100% the time a Team loses....it's because the other Team had better kids. It's that simple. I tell my kids to hold their heads high walking off the court.....I don't care if we won or lost. Frankly, I'd rather see them play good basketball and get beat than play selfish and win. It's about the journey and not the moment.
3. Sometimes you "real" Refs get caught up in the Rules more than what the Game is suppose to be about. Two years ago, my Team is up by 2 toward the end of the Game in a Y playoff. The other Coach called his second TO of the 1/2. In our League you get one. The Ref T'd him and I went over and told him that we don't call it that "formally" in our League. We aren't shooting the T and give them the ball back. My kids were astonished. So I told them, you want to win it on the Court not on a technicality. Right? (Thank God we did win that one.) That's a life lesson. If you take that T....why not cheat on a test, sue Market Basket for slipping on a grape, ot cheat on your spouse, etc. This stuff about T'ing up a kid for taking off a bloody shirt at the bench is bad. That's not what loving the game is about. The NFHS should make all that non-basketball stuff "recommendations" and not penalties that determine the outcome of competitions.
Oh, God......the nurses are coming to medicate me again.......
|