[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by MRofficial

So I was in watching a basketball game of a niece as she was playing an AAU game. The girls are in high school and are very competitive. They were playing a game when I the game was slowly getting out of hand. Having been a basketball official in the high school level, and now doing work in the CACC conference, I have a certain appreication for younger referee's.

Be that as it may, the referee's needed to improve alot, they were well over their heads.

1. In the winding moments of the game before my niece, team A scored a wild 3pt to bring their deficeit down to 2 with 22 seconds left. Coach of Team A calls timeout, and during the excitment and confusion NEITHER referee counts the number of players substituting for Team A. There were 6 players on the court from Team A, 6 players in bright purple pressing the team that is only up by 2. In fact, the clock runs for 12 seconds while Team A is pressing full court, until a foul is called in the front court and the 6th girl on Team A somehow disappears onto the bench. This should have been the first clue for me, but everyone makes mistakes.

2. The same two referee's my neiece's game and I'm thinking well, it was very exciting and counting players could be overlooked. As the game goes, there were NO technicals called, when obviously there were at least 2 incidents of players confronting each other face to face, and 1 where a player was pushed to the ground behind the trail offical and the player on the ground kicked the player who was running over her. As the second half began, the game was even more volatile. Team A was up by a large margin and the game was getting even more tense as Team B was making a run. Than, another altercation, where two players are in each other's face. The referee finally walks over to the coachs and simply says they need to control their players, once again, no technicals and the game is still being called very loose. I would have personally given both coaches tech's for agruing throuhgout the game and demeaning the officials. Long story short, nighmare scenario occurs. One girls from Team A faces off with a girl from Team B. Referee did not get between them, they watched and than one girl striked the other girl, causing both the bleachers and benches to clear out. Police and ambulances were on site and the game was called.

MY DILLEMA
WHAT TO DO! I do not believe that either of these officials should referee again. I am also scared for the referee and organization as they might be sued. Any suggestions or comments? I think that this board has the general liability insurance, and they might need it!

Originally Posted by MRofficial

WOW, looks like there is alot of whislting going on!

I admitt I had to learn too, I've missed calls and made bad ones as well, and you are right, I did learn from them. I also agree that this AAU thing has gotten out of hand. This job we call offciating is not a full time position, I totally agree that if people expect much they must be given much.

Fortunately I love the game and have passionately pursued to get better and at my level I am well compenstated, however I think that we all agree that there are those whom we have either seen or worked with as partners who you hope and wish you don't get again.

Now, it is clearly the role of the assigner to do the best of balancing the referee, but I'm sure it hasn't changed much from my days of doing summer ball, where the best is not necessarily assigned for various games due to the pay or scheduling conflicts. Having said that these two particular referee's will see a lawsuit from what I have heard, and this just brings a new dimension for us. Coaches should coach, but if they don't referee's should ref and keep the safety of the athletes at the forefront. I just believe that seeing the younger referee's, they are seldom prepared and have alot of OJT, which is fine, but I hope we all agree that there are several referee's who do not have what it takes to ref, not all who want to ref can nor should be referees.

I think that you should write a letter to the league expressing your concerns. Your writing skills are sure to get their attention.