Unusual Situation

[Hawks Coach]

hoops - I'm not questioning your basic rule of thumb in any way. Best to avoid the conflicts when accepting assignments. I'm merely referring to your thoughts that you would avoid substituting (probably should have used the quote from that section to make that clear!)

I would never under any circumstance officiate a game involving the school I coached at. If I was in the stands watching the game and noticed only one official I would very quickly done to the corner store getting a coffee.

As for your question, I would hope you would avoid reffing varsity kids that you coached at a lower level, because it is only fair to both sides. I do regard JV as somewhat different, but I would not expect you to accept an assignment to a JV game for kids you had in 6 or 7th grade unless it was to keep the game from being cancelled. If you were beckoned from the stands, you should ensure that the opposing coach accepts you as a ref. If he wants only one ref rather than have you, so be it. I would accept you and assume that you are an individual with some integrity and not a part of a cynical plot to influence the reffing.

As for the coach blaming you for a loss in the visiting locker room, I am assuming his players also heard that, which will come back to haunt him. The moment I begin blaming you folks for losses, my losses are going to come much more frequently because 1) my team and I now have an excuse to lose and 2) we will fail to fix our problems since we don't know why we lost the game (it wasn't the refs!).