[Rich]

Originally Posted by jTheUmp

The reason you know this is intentional: it happened on the VERY NEXT PLAY after the conversation too place. Had it been 10 minutes later, there could've been some room for doubt.



However, as an umpire, I certainly wouldn't talk to a player like that. The whole conversation sounds needlessly confrontational. I do my best to try to stay out of the scrum as much as possible (although sometimes it's unavoidable). I've even apologized to players for getting in the way, or thanked them for "not killing me" when I do get caught up.



Also, depending on how lower levels of play are officiated, it's entirely possible he hasn't had to deal with an umpire in the middle of the field before now. Around here, all of our non-varsity games are officiated with 2 wings and an R, or sometimes just two wings (which is terrible for all kinds of reasons). The only time we add an Umpire and Back Judge is on Varsity games.

I refuse to work 3-man. We work most of our subvarsity with 5. Nothing at the HS level is done with fewer than 4 around here. Even the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade games I've assigned has had 4 officials.