[JugglingReferee]

Through an odd set of circumstances, I was asked to referee in the U19 Ontario Provincial Championships. The women's tournament was this past weekend, and the men's in coming up. Although I am not guaranteed games, I do think I may be assigned to the tournament.

These are some incidents and things that I learned or had confirmed. I think the audience for this post varies...

1. Minor Officials
   • I cannot stress enough how much the minor officials can (or do not) get you into trouble
   • As I've stated before, Ontario (except HS) has gone to FIBA, which includes a 24-second shotclock. Table crews are new to this shot clock and its rules.
   • It wasn't easy for me to build into my game to always check the game AND shot clock. At the end of the weekend, I think I had it licked though. I did manage to be selected to referee a gold medal game (division 2), and in that game, we had about 6 shot clock corrections, mostly for an incorrect reset.
   • One interesting case was when both me and my P knew that the clock was near 0, but with intense play going on, didn't have time to look up to see why the buzzer hadn't sounded. As soon as a split-second was available, we both knew to look up and saw the clock read 23. It was incorrectly reset, so we both ended up blowing our whistle. Because of that, we communicated with each other and made sure that we were both going to rule a shot clock violation.
   • Lesson learned: the non-calling official should grab the time on the clock - both game clock and shot clock.
2. Being Calm
   • Had to eject an assistant coach. Basketball Ontario has a zero tolerance policy. My interpretation of this includes preventative officiating.
   • This assistant was constantly standing up, and commenting on calls. I addressed the situation and he agreed to calm down, and to also not get in the way of me communicating with the scorers' table.
   • Later in the game, he's up off the bench again, and when I run to the FRA, he's across half-court and blocking my view of the table. I ask him to step aside. Nothing except *****ing. Whack. He kept going so my P and I just let him ride out his rant, at which point, my P whacked him again and tossed him. I honestly thought that I was going to hear a racial comment by the end of his rant. Ended up shooting 6 foul shots. Two for the (FIBA) unsportsmanlike foul that I called, and 4 for the Ts.
   • Of course, all this enticed the crowd supporting this team. We stopped the game and site convenor had to address the crowd reminding of the fair play policy of Basketball Ontario. He warned them that the next step was to eject fans, which may include an entire section. That shut 'em up pretty good. I actually would have liked to see that one day: ejecting an entire section. Is that bad to want to see such a thing?
   • Less learned: stay calm and follow the procedures outside of the rulebook when they're zero tolerance. If anyone questions anything, you have a higher authority to back you up.
3. Being Consistent
   • In the final, coach is trying to work me good. He has some link to officiating, I'm not sure how though. So he's trying to work me about A/D, about about passing on fouls even where a girl gets clocked after a basket. My response to him was that I call the first game of the tournament the same as the final game, and the first minute the same as the last minute of overtime. Note to Mark: none of my games went to OT. I know better!
   • Lesson confirmed: stick your ground and don't get worked by coaches. This may be difficult for the rooks.
4. Hustling
   • I ended up doing enough games such that during the final, my body was aching. But you gotta do it - stay in position, stay focused, stay moving, stay consistent. I needed the rest of Sunday and most of Monday to recover from this past weekend. It's worth it of course.
   • Plus, it turns out that I was videotaped during this game.
   • Lesson confirmed: You never know who is watching!