Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Padgett
"Competitive" 5th grade boys game tonight. Right there, that should tell you something. I toss the ball to start the game. A1 taps to A2, who starts dribbling. B1 reaches around him and knocks the ball OOB right in front of my partner. Absolutely no contact. Partner calls the OOB. Coach A jumps out onto the court opposite the OOB spot and yells, "NO FOUL? THAT'S A REACH! ARE YOU GONNA MISS CALLS ALL FREAKIN' NIGHT?" Partner gives him the stop sign and says, "That's enough, coach." Coach replies still yelling and still standing, "ENOUGH? I'LL TELL YOU WHEN IT'S ENOUGH". Partner - WHACK!
As he walks toward the table to report the technical, the coach yells again, "A TECHNICAL - FOR THAT? YOU GOTTA BE SH!TT!N' ME!" Partner - WHACK! I look at the clock. It reads 7:55. My partner tossed a coach five seconds into a game. He came over to me and said, "Wow, five seconds. That's a new record for me. How about you?" I replied, "Nah, I've tossed them in the parking lot before the game even started". He looked at me and said, "Ya' know, from what I've heard about you, I don't doubt it."  |
Mark:
Stop me if I have told this story before (and I am pretty sure that I have told it before) but I am sure that the newbies will get a kick out of it. Also I apologize for making a short story long,
.
About ten years ago I officiated basketball in the Hoosier (Indiana) State Games (summer games fashioned after the Olympics, like the Empire State Games for you New Yorkers). I know that some of you are wondering how I was officiating in this tournament but Daryl H. 'The Preacher' Long and I have a good friend from Indiana who assigned the officials for the tournament and that is how I got the assignament. Daryl was supposed to officiate in the tournament but he had a death in the family and could not go.
I had a pool play game in the Girls' 13U Division (NFHS Rules) on the second day of the tournament; the game was my first of the day. As my partner (a second year official) and I were observing the two teams warmup before the game I noticed that a girl (W1) on the White team had both of the lobes of both her ears covered with white athletic tape. I approached W1 and asked her why she had her ear lobes taped. She told me that she was covering the earrings that she was wearing. I informed her that I could not make her take the earrings off, she would not be allowed to play while wearing. Immediately, she went into her "but they are covered with tape" story and that the officials in her game the previous night had allowed her to cover them with tape. I told her that I could not comment on the officials in her previous game but repeated that she could not play while wearing earrings.
I returned to my pre-game position near the division line with my parther, and that is when White-HC approached me. He wanted to know why I was hasseling W1 about her earrings. I told him what I had told W1 about wearing jewelry. And he gave the usual drivel about the officials in the previous night's game. And I repeated what I had told W1. He told me that I couldn't keep her from playing and I told her that she would not play if she was wearing the earrings.
At that point the told me I must be a jerk if I thouht that I could keep W1 from playing. I told him that I may be jerk, but the game would start with Red (I don't remember what the colors of White's opponent but Red will do in a pinch) shooting two free throws and then receive the ball for a throw-in at the division line opposite the table, and that he had just lost the use of the Coaching Box for the entire game because he had just committed a Unsportsmanlike TF for calling me a jerk.
He then told me that I couldn't charge him with TF before the game, and I informed him that I could and that I had just did. He then said that I bet you are going to tell me that I can eject him from the game before it even starts. And I told him that the game officials did have that authority to take such action. He then told me that only a really
big jerk would eject a coach before the start of the game. I informed that that I must be a really
big jerk because he was not ejected from the game.
He didn't want to leave and I informed his assistant that she was now the Head Coach for White and she needed to get him out of the facility. Guess what she told me: "He is the Head Coach, I can't tell him to leave." I told her that if she didn't the game would be over before it started. She gave me the following look:
. And got him out of the building.
W1 refused to take her earrings out and sitting on the bench for most of the first half. By this time her team was down by about ten points, when she suddenly left the bench and met her mother in the corner of the gym where her mother took her earrings out. At the next stoppage of play, she game into the game with no earrings or tape on her ears.
She had not been in the game for one minute when she attempted to drive the endline and ran over a Red player who had taken the endline away from her. I thought I was going to get lynched by the White fans when I gave the charge signal.
End of story.
MTD, Sr.