I filled in at the last minute for a friend-assignor for a classic youth league to do three 8th grade games. Only the first one was close. Team A up by 5 with three minutes to go and team B comes out of a timeout shooting nothing but threes. Of course, they missed all of them, didn't follow their shots or get a single rebound and with one minute to go, they're still down by five. Team B requests and is granted a timeout. I remind my partner to watch for the intentional foul. At this point, B has committed 4.
When play resumes, they do try to foul, but the first two attempts they make clean plays on the ball so no intentional. However, after that, they just run up to the ball handler and hug him. My partner and I call a total of three intentionals and they lose by, yep you guessed it, five.
After the game, I am getting a snack bar out of my bag when the losing coach comes up to my partner and starts yelling at her about the intentional calls. I try to ignore him, but there's no way.
He tells me he has seen "millions" of high school games and has never seen those fouls called intentional at the end of a game. I ask him how old he is, since he has been around long enough to have seen "millions" of games. He doesn't get it.
He then tells us we are "on a power trip". I tell him no, I'm on Prozac - "Power Trip" isn't on my medical plan's formulary. He doesn't get it.
He starts yelling again and now says we lost the game for his kids. I tell him, yeah, next time I'll try not to miss so many free throws. He doesn't get it.
He tells me I'm not interested in listening to what he has to say. I ask him, "Gee, what gave you a clue" as I then stuff the rest of my snack bar into my mouth.
He just stands there staring at me. I chew and swallow the rest of the bar and then stare back. He asks me if I have anything more to say. That's when I start barking.
He throws his hands up in disgust and leaves the gym. My partner tells me she would never have the guts to do something like that. I tell her, "That wasn't guts. It was presence". She didn't get it.
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Yom HaShoah
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