[blindzebra]

Originally Posted by Vinski

I’m sure that most of you vets have been through worse, and will probably nod your heads and say, “Been there, done that. No big deal”. But I gotta tell ya, what an evening (for a rookie anyway)! Let me preface this with a little history. I just rapped up my first season. I had been reffing 5th – 8th grade boys and girls mostly for the local YMCA. Next year on to sub-varsity. Can’t wait…At least that is how I used to think before this evening. I’ve done about 25 games and most went pretty well. Only had to hush a coach with a warning once. Had to T a kid for an unsporting. Had a couple noisy parents. But other than that, mostly pretty good. Until tonight…
Two rival junior highs were going at it and I new it could be a rough one because I had reffed both before but not playing against one another. One was very aggressive and the other was kind of a rough team. Right off the bat a couple of fouls on team A. The coach is in my face about B’s guys pushing. I give him the hand and tell him to back off with an official warning. Then A1 picks up another foul and grows a visual display of displeasure regarding my call. I give the hand and warning to him. This was the last I heard from team A the rest of the game. Now it’s team B’s turn. I catch B1 slapping hands up high defending a shot, so I blow the whistle. He response with a “What the f.***”. Bam, I give the T. Now, this started with a shooting foul so we clear the lane and let the shooter for team A shoot two. It so happens that this is A coach’s choice for the T shots as well, so he fires up a third and the B coach goes nuts! He had forgotten that it was a shooting foul and thinks that we are giving him a 3 shot technical. I try to get a word in to explain, but he goes on. So, Bam, T number 2. This kid from team A got to shoot 6 free throws in a row before we got things going again. I told coach B to sit and be quite or he is gone. That quieted things down some but I kept getting a bunch of chirping and whining about the other team not getting called and that I was picking on theirs. But B was bent on playing sloppy, rough basket ball.
Now, get this…Not a peep out of the parents the whole game.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. Just not how I want the season to end. However, I do feel my skin getting thicker.

Let's see coach A gets a warning, runs it and gets another warning...mistake #1.

Coach B gets 2 T's and doesn't get ejected...mistake #2.