This is my first post, so you guys be easy on me. I am a first year official and have worked several jv games and a few middle school games. When I am not officiating, I make the best of every opportunity I have to go to games and learn from veteran officials. Tuesday night, I officiated a boys jv game and afterward stuck around to observe the officiating in the varsity games. During the boys game I saw something happen between the ref and the center official and the result I thought should have been handled a differently. But again, I am new and I may be wrong.
Here's what happened along with my question: Team A has the ball in their front court. Lead official (who was the referee) was in position on the endline on ballside about 15 feet from the ballhandler. Center official was on ball side, (whom I thought should have moved up to trail position) about the same distance from A1 who had ball control. Both A1 and defender B1 were about 10 to 12 feet from the corner of endline and sideline. Ball is fumbled, goes out of bounds right in front of me and was obvious to me who was the last player to touch the ball. But, I realize both officials had different angles on the ball. The center official gave the signal of posession to B, at the same time the lead official gave the signal of posession to team A. The ball was retrieved by the center official and stood at the throw-in spot in the corner. At the same time the lead official stood clapping his hands for the ball telling the center official to give him the ball. The lead official lost out but was, by the looks of it, extremely angry. He was not allowed the opportunity to administer the throw-in. But took off running down the court to assume another position on the court.
My questions are; 1) Couldn't the officials have talked about the play and come to an agreement?
2) Does the Ref of the three officials have the final say in questionable calls?
3) Do you think the ref may have spoken to the center official about the way the situation was handled, and if so, what would he might have said?
