[theboys]

We played in a national qualifier this spring - YBOA 14U. In our first game, one of the two officials was apparently pretty new. Prior to the game, and at quarter breaks he spent a lot of time receiving advice from the other official. At times he looked a little unsure of himself.

With about 20 seconds to go in the game, and us down by one, we had the ball, dribbling up the sideline. The player with the dribble was bumped out of bounds by the defender. (Really, he was.) The "new" official blows his whistle, and gives the other team the ball. I looked at the second official, made some sort of grunting howler monkey noise, and threw my hands up in the air. He ignored me, thank goodness.

We ended up losing by one, of course. Oh, we got the ball back - with six seconds left, and promptly threw it out of bounds.

Except for the one call, I thought the officials did a good job, and worked well as a team. The "new" official was obviously giving it his best. So, after the game, I thanked them for their efforts.

But, the point of this story is this...I was talking to the player later that evening, and the "bumped" play came up. He told me, that after the game, one of the officials came up to him, and told him he was sorry, that they had kicked the call.

I asked the player if that made him mad. He said no, that it actually made him feel a little better. I don't how you officials feel about "true confessions", I guess it can be a dangerous road, but I thought it was pretty magnanimous myself.