Attended my son's varsity game last night, an away game. As the game had progressed we appeared to get away with a couple of pretty hard fouls on shot attempts. The home coach, bench and fans were, of course, going berserk. Finally, the home coach was given a T.

At about the same time, the referee requested the help of a school administrator and a sheriff's deputy in removing a fan. The fan turned out to be a man in a wheelchair who was cursing a blue streak from his spot at the far end of the home bench, which was the furthest point from the exit.

No room behind the benches, so he wheeled himself, very slowly, past the home bench, the scorer's table, and the visitor's bench, the whole time cursing the referees. The home players and fans game him a standing ovation. A couple of the players on the court came over and shook his hand. Our assistant coach finally asked the deputy to stop the man's cursing because of its offensive nature.

To make matters more difficult, the man was apparently mentally disabled.

Surreal.

theboys,

Apparently, so, too, were the couple of players under some sort of misguided influence.

It probably didn't help the situation that this fan was probably approaching sainthood within the community.

mick

How did the rest of the game go--esp. for the officials?

The fan was removed with 3-4 minutes left in the game. Home was up by 12 at the time. With a couple of minutes left home coach subbed for the starters. The game ended without further incident. I was at the top of the stands filming so couldn't tell if anything was coming from the benches. The fans were happy with the win so didn't say much else. I do remember noticing the referees running from the gym at a faster than normal pace.

Your story just took a turn from observer to critic, methinks. ...Changed the flavor.