Originally Posted by fiasco

I have a history with this particular team. Their captain has it made up in his mind that I have it out for his team and will screw them over at every opportunity. I asked the rec league commissioner to not schedule me for their games, but last night they needed someone to fill in and I agreed not looking at the schedule and not wanting to leave someone hanging.

What's worked for me @ the wreck level is to have a pre-game conversation with the player/team who has a misconceived perception about why I am there... THE GAME!

So, early on in the game my partner and I are trying to clean up hacking and reaching in on the perimeter. There were a lot of fouls called, on both teams. I called two quick fouls on this captain. The first one, he raises his hand in the air, claiming the foul. The second one, he glares at me while I'm taking the ball out of bounds. I ignore him.

Good stuff!

The rest of the players pick up on the fact that my partner and I are calling fouls on reaching in and hacking, handchecking on the perimeter.

Not a knock, but I've rarely seen handchecks called in those type of settings. And I'm sure you know that "reaching in" is not a foul.

They adjust their play. The captain does not. He continues his aggressive defense and I call him for a third foul. It sucks, yes, to have called three fouls on this guy, all from me, in the first half. But my hands are tied as...well...he keeps fouling.

We should encourage aggresive play NOT excessive or overly aggresive play...

Now he's really getting steamed. He glares at me hard core and just keeps muttering "unbelievable" for everyone to hear. I ignore him again and go back to my business.

Selective listening is a great tool!

Two plays later an opponent of his grabs a rebound and the captain comes over top of him and whacks his arm, sending the ball out of bounds. I call another foul. He huffs and puffs and goes over to the scorers table after I report the foul.

I thought he was subbing out, but apparently not as he comes walking directly towards me and says "Good job, buddy. That's 4."

He has, in past games, directly accused me of calling fouls on his team to favor the opposing team.

So I whack him. 5 fouls, he's gone. He grabs his stuff, walks right past me and yells "Well, you got what you wanted."

The first three fouls were completely justified, IMO. The fourth foul...well, it was borderline, I guess, I could have just called out of bounds but he didn't touch the ball at all, and he hit his arm, causing the ball to go out of bounds. So, it was either out of bounds on the opposing team or a foul (his 4th). A crappy situation but I think I handled it the best I could.

I've learned that we should call the violation & give it to the right team as opposed to calling the foul in that sitch (especially if you know the foul situation). If there are any complaints, I tell them it's white ball or a foul on YOU... they tend to be appreciative when explained like that

I appreciate your feedback.