[lmeadski]

I was coaching my daughters U11 team this weekend at a tournament. In our first game, we had one registered ref, one student from the hosting University as another. Our player, A1, steals ball and heads towards our basket. B1, with great speed, catches up and delivers blow on shot, no call. Our girl crumbles in heap to floor, B1 picks up ball and moves ball back up court, our player still in heap on floor. Ref looks back at our player twice, no whistle to stop play (remember, B1 had no advantage heading up court, only her and A1 were involved in the breakaway). B1 dribbles down through her lane, takes a shot, B2 rebounds, shoots again, we finally gain ball. Our girl is just getting up, eye completely red and a bit swollen from the blow. Finally, whistle blows. I now see how red my players eye is (it wasn't a touch foul, which I thought was obvious on the play), she can't even keep it open, it is watering so much. I look to the patched ref and say, "Stripes, are you going to let play like this go on today?" I didn't have MUCH tone in my voice (but there was some negative inflection). He Ts me up for, in his words, disprespecting him for calling him stripes. Roughly two minutes later, another player of mine takes an elbow on teh chin, bloody lip, comes out of game. Again, no call. Then, in the 3rd period, with two girls on the floor going for loose ball (A2 and B2), B3 dives on the pile, driving her shoulder into A2s chin (who, just got braces on Thursday). Of course, no foul call (jump ball instead), A2 comes up with bloody mouth. So shame on me for calling him stripes (was that truly disrespectful?) and getting lit up (true or false)? And, at what point would this community feel I needed to step up to protect my players' best interest and get into the ref's soup (In a side bar, I calmly approached him at the next dead ball, expressed my concern about the lack of calls with rough play, and he offers: I didn't see it, turns and walks away)?

[Edited by lmeadski on Feb 12th, 2006 at 05:23 PM]