[Welpe]

Disclaimer: This post is primarily me venting.

I had a couple of freshman boys games yesterday that were...interesting. Lots of ugly play, lots of fouls, lots of chirping going on.

In the first game, the home team is up by 20 after the first quarter. My partner ended up warning the visiting team head coach for chirping about calls in the second quarter. Evidently the coach didn't appreciate that much because my wife (who came to observe the fun) told me he mentioned something about wanting to punch both of us refs in the mouth. He didn't complain very much the rest of the game though.

I T'd up a visiting player in the fourth quarter for voicing his disapproval after I passed on incidental contact against him while he was shooting. His mom in the stands had quite a mouth, too. We passed on T'ing up another visiting player for slapping the floor in disgust after I called a foul against him. My partner did have a word with him though.

The second game started off with the promise that it might be a cleaner game. That was fairly short lived.

There was a play where a home team player went up for an outside shot and leaned into the defender a bit. The defender was completely vertical, playing good defense. The shot missed and went out of bounds. The home team coach screams at me "Why wasn't that a foul?!" I calmly told him "The defender was straight up coach. Your shooter initiated contact with..."

The coach doesn't let me finish, and gives me a disgusted, dismissive wave similar to what I would've expected from one of his teenagers. I paused for a second, thought about it and whacked him. My partner informs him he must sit, we administer the free throws and the chirping drops way down from both benches and the home team actually started playing a better game after that. Go figure.

At half-time, I was second guessing myself a bit for having whacked him but after reflecting back on the way the chirping and complaining went down after the fact, I think it was the right move.

What a way to come back from vacation. Gotta love district play.