How did you know when to hang it up from wreck league?
I think I'm ready to retire from wreck league. I was talking with a well-respected official in our state the other night that I was lucky enough to be assigned a game with, and he was talking about how at some point you graduate from that wreck stuff. Every time some idiot makes a comment to me there, I think about Rich's story about the jamboree where he just sat the ball on the table and went home. I dream of the day that I do something similar to that or just grab the ball and punt it into the rafters and say "over the back this," while making the appropriate gesture.
This year, our coordinator literally sent out an email that said "you should expect to hear talk back from the players and spectators," when talking about how to handle these games and how there were too many technicals last year. Shouldn't that be sent to the players? They earn them. I don't disagree with the fact that yes they will talk, but setting the expectation that it's acceptable for those guys to be jerks doesn't make it easy on us. I decided I'm just going to call my game and give out T's like candy this year, and if he doesn't like it he can take me off the games.
This past weekend in a men's league, a team brought 4 women to play. I checked the rules and there really wasn't anything about women, so we decided to let them play. One of the women was chirping about 3 seconds every time down the court, so I warned and whacked when she wouldn't shut up. Then she was on the sideline and didn't like a PC call against her team that I made and started clapping. I just whacked her and told her to get out. She and her team were incredulous that I'd give a second T "just for clapping," but as you can probably tell I'm at the point where I'm not going to put up with anything from them this year. $25 a game isn't worth listening to hacks complain, so maybe they'll figure out eventually that I don't put up with BS.
I guess I needed to vent and am wondering at what point you all knew it was time to be done with that stuff (if you ever called any wreck league games). Re-reading this post, I think I know my answer. I can't see myself doing it next year, and I'll be surprised if I make it all the way through this year doing a full varsity slate, occasional all-day Saturday tourneys, and this Sunday night men's league garbage without quitting the men's league, but I'm curious about other officials who I respect and how they handle(d) this stuff.
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