Man...day started out with absolute crazy game for me yesterday....
I got pulled into the second half of a crazy azhed 7th grade game yesterday during a travel team tournament. Went from 2-man to 3-man with 12:00 left in the second half (14:00 halves). I became the 3rd ref
Not a good sitch to enter into, for sure....I was supposed to be working my own game on another court but had a forefit when one team was a no-show so I got to watch this mess unfold from two perspectives.
Game was a bit out of control during the 1st half...fans yelling, coaches yelling, players tempers flaring (there was a dead ball scrimmish that probably should have resulted in double Ts, but I was not on the court at that time).
At halftime, after the scorekeeper walked from table to bleachers, stood on bleachers and repeatedly shouted "SHUT UP...YOU DO THE SCORE THEN!" at some other idiot parent who kept chastising him cause the "SCORE AIN'T RIGHT!"...dude wasn't even working the clock...he was doing the book!
As I stood there and watched this I ended up going to the offices and told one of the facility owners....the boys league admin had finally made his presence to the court during this time and got things calmed down for at least the moment.....they started the 2nd half with the same two refs and the pot began to boil with again.....League Admin asked me if I'd jump in and we'd finish the game with 3 refs....I said sure, knowing I was going into the fire and feeling bad for my two Ps as it probably made them look bad to everybody in the place....but they really needed a 3rd set of eyes....
I wasn't 3 minutes in and one of the coaches was riding my butt(the other guy really wasn't that bad)...this guy however was your typical AAUHole...
I became trail after his team missed a shot in the lane... I laid pretty far back (because the PG was way out near the half court line)...Coach is griping at me about not making calls at his offensive end (they were on D now where I was trail)...told me "You need to get past half court don't you?...No wonder you are not making calls!"
I told him "Coach, calm down and coach your kids"...."I'll calm down when you get where you are supposed to be and make some calls!" was his response...
Now he's got me focused on him and not the game...I'm trying to watch and give this guy warning that I don't like where this is headed...He's right beside me at half court
I said, coach, "I'm not gonna hear any more from you about officiating....I saw enough of that in the first half from the sideline...focus on your kids".
He replies, "I'll focus if you get where you are supposed to be"...At this point, I stop signed him and told him "I have heard enough"...
Knowing he wouldn't shut his pie hole.....He uttered something else just as his team got the defensive rebound and I killed his fast break and whacked him! He tried to say something else as I was reporting and I cut him off with the stop sign again and said "Next one, you'll be watching from outside the gym".
He didn't say another word to any of the crew about the calls and focused on his kids, which I wanted. I did manage to have a calm convo with him shortly there after because there was a scoring discrpancy...he and I were on the same page about the score so I felt good about that interaction which was calm.
Parents were on my case about the T (not that I cared...it needed to be done)...Again, I felt bad for my Ps cause I came in late and I was the one who had to do the dirty work....
Coach I T'd up, his team ended up losing by 4....of course it was our fault cause "They (meaning refs) was ready to go home for the day"
.....Yeah...we only had 3 more games after that one that each of us were working....this was the first of the day for us!
Rest of the day was pretty much decent coaches who actually focused on their kids and if they had a question about a call...they simply asked.
Some guys get it....some don't....