[bigdogrunnin]

Originally Posted by 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 haven't recorded my name in a scorebook in several years . . . 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. Very Nice!!

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. Good . . . Ignore . . . you can't cure stupid.

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. I hope a flagrant T. This kid is sitting for the rest of the game if I'm on the floor. JMOWell, 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? Sometimes you just have crappy games. As a wise old clinician said to me at camp several years ago, "you can't make chicken salad out of chicken $hit." Sounds like you and your partner did a good job holding it together.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

Responses in Red.