Fighting

[Brian Watson]

I have never had a fight in one of my games, knock wood, but we watched a great set of tapes at our assoc. meeting last night. They were tapes of fights that had happened around the state this year, and allowed us to see what we should and should not do as officials. Our interpreter made it clear that we should do the following:

1) Do not get near the fight, but try to keep others away.
2) Motion the coaches out and let the them break it up.
3) Make sure you observe and remember who is involved. Stay "wide" from the center of the fight to observe everything going on in and around it.
4) Watch the benches!!
5) Huddle before any ejections are relayed.
6) Tell the book and the coaches together who is ejected, and/or which teams might be shooting free throws.

In watching the tapes the officials worried so much about stopping the fight they missed everything they were supposed to do. People who should not have been tossed- were, while people who started the fights were not. One team had the entire bench on the floor near the fight, but all of the officials had their back turned; no one was ejected because a smart coach herded them back while the officials were distracted. One official slipped trying to break up one skirmish and landed on a player. The kid could have been hurt worse. Fans from the stands were in the area talking to the officials. Some of these situation could have been much worse, because the officials were not doing what was expected.

After this exercise it made me realize, I really did not know what I would do in that situation. Now I think I will be ready if it ever happens to me.