[zeedonk]

OK- frosh game last week. I am U1 and my partner is R. We are in a gym that's simply a jail- nowhere to go, no locker rooms, no officials quarters only hallways and the court. During warm ups, we notice 2-3 visitors with white T shirts on that don't match the primary color of the uniforms. We also see 2 on the home team. Partner informs visitor coach of our problem and he disagrees that the short sleeve T make the uniform illegal. Partner informs home coach, no problem. Visiting coach wants our names in the book so he can call our assignor to make sure we're wrong. I get the proverbial bad feeling 12 minutes prior to tip off...

Sure enough, the game is a mess. Double bonus FTs both halves (12-10 and 11-8, in that range). We used resumption of play at least 2 times when visitors ignored 2nd horn after time outs, despite our verbal attempts to get them out. Mommies and daddies not happy either. Kids complaining a bit, but they are under control for the most part.

Early 2nd quarter after our 2nd ROP, I'm reporting a foul in front of visitors bench-here it comes- "You have to give us a warning before you put the ball on the floor after a time out- I haven't seen that in 10 years of coaching" I reply that the teams have to be out and ready on the second horn. Home team was out and ready to go. I turn to head back and coach yells "I can't wait to make that phone call tonight" He didn't get to "tonight" before I whacked him.

Since we're in jail in this gym we have a dad (wearing visitor's team sweatshirt) telling us that "putting the ball down twice is grade school" and he's an official for 10 years blah blah blah.

2nd half was OK, considering. V coach sitting and not complaining any more, H coach wise enough to clam up after the T and he's winning. With so many fouls and violations, the game took forever and we aren't looking for more trouble, but the game begins to get out of hand, score-wise. Strangely, I call a kick on home player who turns around back to me and yells "Fing horrible call" Whack. Well, at least I have one on each team now.

I report the T and tell the coach "kid dropped an F bomb on me" he says, "I know I heard him" spins away, and before I can move, he's back around telling me we're losing control of the game. I gave him the stop sign and said "no we aren't" and walked away. I didn't want another T and he was deciding if he wanted one too.... he quieted down.

Sigh. What a mess.

Any thoughts? When you have games like that, is it a loss of control on our part? I don't generally mind a little noise from the sidelines, but it wasn't just the coaches. It seemed like every call was met with a whine by somebody. I'm open to what actions to take to avoid this type of situation, or how I might handle it better in the future.

Z