Lousy Partner, Lousy Me

[SoFL_Rookie]

I'm in my first year of HS officiating, but I had a somewhat similar situation this year. It occurred when I was the R in a 2 whistle game, working with another 1st year HS official. Unfortunately, our association can't always pair new officials with veterans, so a slightly higher rated rookie (test score, clinic attendance) will get the R.

Girls JV game, plenty of sloppy play. My partner is "letting them play" and we are not calling the obvious, or staying true to advantage / disadvantage. By halftime, coaches and fans are getting hot, and letting us know about it.

What do you do?

What I did was talk to my partner at half, saying "I think we need to tighten it up a little bit." His reply: "No, everything's fine. These coaches and fans are always whining." Well, second half I was calling damn near everything. I was blowing his whistle as well as mine. I think we got control of the game back, and funny, he didn't mind that I was making calls in his primary. But I felt lousy at the end, because as a team, we were lousy out there.

Matt