Quote:
Originally Posted by bainsey
Right, the teams could do that, but I asked what are YOU, the official, looking to do about that? Aside from suggesting shortening the quarters (which I've done once, when it was 52-2 at halftime), I don't see what officials can do about these lopsided games. All you can really do is keep playing, and tell the kids that this happens sometimes, and you have to deal with it accordingly.
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The only think you can do is hold each team to a standard that matches their abilities.
Contact one way just doesn't have the same effect as the same contact in the other direction. Just like we draw the line at a different point for 6th grade games than we do for varsity games, do it between the two teams. It does't have to be (and probably shouldn't be) dramatic, but you can have an effect.
I've had a game in the past where one small Christian school had a player on the squad who was a special needs kid. They would put him in the game for a couple minutes at a time. The other coach recognized what was happening and was very accepting of our treating them just a bit different by not calling a travel as they shuffled their feet around 25 feet from the basket. They just smiled and nodded as if to say it was OK with him.
This is not all that different when you have even typical youth players who are just at dramatically different stages of development.Some will say that we should call it straight down the middle and make no adjustments. I don't do that. I call the game where I feel it will be most beneficial to
both teams.