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Originally Posted by Reffing Hoosier
8th Grade All Star Tournament. Pool game is going just fine no complaining or even any chirping from any coaches. One team has a kid, who in his mind, never commits a foul and always gets fouled on every shot. He usually makes some whiney face but nothing I can't ignore. 1.6 seconds left this kids team is down three and have to go the length of the floor, they try to throw it deep to him, and the defender bats it down. The kid then flops as if he is trying to draw a foul. No call horn sounds game over.
Here is where the trouble starts. The kid turns to me and very plainly yells "you Suck" and then briskly walks away. I head straight for him and tell "you want to continue to play this weekend you will need to keep you mouth shut". I did not raise my voice nor seem in any way excited. At that point his coach comes charging at me and tells me to leave his player alone. I explain to him what his kid said, and his response was "he is a 14 year old kid, be the bigger man and walk away." My response back was "I did not realize you allow 14 year olds to speak to officials that way." To make a very long story shorter, I have been disturbed by this all weekend.
My question to you all is: Did i handle this ok?? Should I have just walked away from the kid?? Should i have t'd him up (which would not have hurt his status for future games)??
Any advice would be appreciated.
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20-20 says that you should have dealt with this player much earlier. (Mistkae #1.) A quick note to the coach that his player is focusing on calls that aren't there would be helpful.
In addition, you ignored the player all game, then on a situation after the last past of the game, you decide to initiate a conversation and say something to him? That was mistake #2.
You have to ignore him here, or go straight to the T. However, given that you never dealt with him previously, I think you have to ignore him here too. Calling a T would only esculate the situation - the coach and player would likely (just my bet) respond that would warrant a second T, which is a huge can of worms.
In summary, I think you should have been disturbed by the events, because I think that you could have handled it better. Take a big learning experience from this: deal with a whiney kid early! In my experience, I get less than one of these types of player per season - so they're not at all common.