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Follow Up
"how are these teams formed that the same kids are together two years in a row without any improvement"
This isn't a rec league. These guys are from a consolidated school. I believe they have made improvement, but their road is going to be a long one! They also have no "stars" that they can count on to score.
"What you saw is the product of poor coaching and bad refereeing."
Recref--I can't accuse you of pulling punches! ;-) Unfortunately, as I learned last night (see below) you were exactly right about the bad refereeing!
Here's how it went last night:
As luck would have it, I got to work with a very good and experienced official last night. I told him my concerns, and he concurred on the captain's meeting. The coaches didn't want to name any captains, so we had all of the players at the division line for the meeting. (I started by congratulating all of them on being named captains!)
My partner then handled the discussion on sportsmanship, and I learned quite a bit from his style and approach. Quick, no-nonsense, authoritative, and just a little friendly.
I then tried to follow his lead of calling fouls closely. I guess I should then not be surprised that the total foul count was---low! He also talked to the boys more often than I had the night before, and he communicated well with me throughout the game on who to watch, who to give reminders to, etc...
Primary lesson learned:
I need to improve my recognition of fouls!
Thanks for the help, guys. While my ego is humbled, I believe I'm at least getting better!
PS. The boys in question still got the stuffing beat out of them, but they kept it under 30 points AND they kept their cool!
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