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Old Sat Jan 20, 2007, 04:35pm
BillyMac BillyMac is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 22,934
Fifth Grade Technical Foul

I often officiate for a local Catholic school league. Weeknight games are called "varsity" games and involve players up to eighth grade. Weekend games are called "junior varsity" games and involve much younger players. The assigner for these "junior varsity" games wants them to be officiated in an "educational manner". In one particular play, my partner called a fifth grade player for a travelling violation, after which the player responded "No way", and tossed the ball away from both me and my partner. I went over to the player and attempted to speak to him about tossing the ball to the nearest official in such a situation, however, he kept ignoring me, and kept walking away from me. I had no plans on giving him a technical foul, nor was I going to ask him to go get the ball for my partner, which I have done in the past. Since he ignored me and kept walking away from me, I blew my whistle, and called a technical foul for his unsportmanlike "No way" and for him not tossing the ball to the nearest official, thus delaying the game. It was just a regular technical foul, not flagrant, but it happened to be his fifth, so he was disqualified from the game. Later, when I was near the player's coach, the coach thanked me for giving his player a technical, and that maybe this would straighten out his bad attitude. Also, later, while I was near a sideline, an adult, who identified herself as the player's mother, also thanked me for giving her son a technical foul, because he could be real stubborn at times, even at home. This was the first technical foul that I called this season, in any level game, high school varsity, Catholic school "varsity", and Catholic school "junior varsity", to either a player or a coach. I've heard Forum members say to call a technical foul if it's going to make the game better. In this case it certainly did.
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