Quote:
Originally Posted by rockyroad
On the other hand, maybe the team that is ahead is preparing for their next game which will be against a really good team and they will need to be able to press them. The coach is working on the press and wants his kids to learn how to run it effectively. It's unfortunate that a team is losing badly, but it's not our job to "teach" the coach how we think he should be coaching.
What the OP'er did was feed into the mythology floating around out there that officials decide who wins the game by calling it inconsistently. What wasn't a foul early - before the 25 point lead - has suddenly become a foul. That's not right.
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I will speak for myself as I do not want to put words into anyone's mouths
My professional philosophy is that there are at least two situations when things get out of hand at a moments notice, when the score is extremely tight and a "blow-out". When there is such a scoring disparity, tempers start to flare easily. It's a very volatile situation.
My partner(s) and I talk about both situations in our pregame and remind each other not to let our guard down if the later happens. I believe that some officials become relaxed and do not exercise the utmost attentiveness when the score becomes out of hand but it'll bite you in the rear someday. I will speak for myself and say that when the score is not tight, sometimes I get relaxed and complacent. Maybe I could even say that my alertness is not at it's peak. That's why it's a pregame topic for me. The P(s) remind each other to stay alert in these situations.
Concerning the OP, I don't call every incident of contact a foul if it wasn't a foul prior to the point spread (probably because it's not a foul). (I equate this to opening up the strikezone in baseball. It's not professionally ethical). I simply elevate my alertness and call the game as if it were a one point game (both ways). I don't want to make it seem that I don't stay attentive during the entire game but an intentional heightened alertness is given to these situations.
With 5-6th graders, their athletic abilities are not extremely keen at this age. They are still finding themselves physically and they don't necessarily control their aggressiveness well (IE there tend to be a lot of crashes from my experience). In the beginning of the game, I might let a few more go as incidental and talk with the players a bit more. At this age, I find, it helps to talk because the kids actually will pay attention to what is being said. Although, they might not remember what was said. However, with a disparity of points and as the tone of the game as set, these crashes will become less because the talking stops and the whistle blows.
Some youth leagues I work, they are very well coached and I don't wander into the arena of encouraging the players as much. Some leagues are unfortunately not like that. If they aren't getting positive feedback from the coaches and are getting discouraged, I'll encourage them a little bit. For instance, the player just turned the ball over twice and fouled on the other end out of frustration. I might pass by and might say "good hustle gentleman!" I won't say a specific number, I'll just encourage everyone to keep up the great work. I consider this preventative officiating.
Just my two cents. Hopefully that I made sense. Unfortunately, work keeps getting in the way of my posting. I need to find a job where I can eliminate the interruptions.
-Josh