Sprinkles

[blindzebra]

Rut, that cuts both ways. I'm white and there have been many times where I have been the only white person involved in the game, and other times because of the area I live, that I've officiated all African-American teams versus all white or Mexican-American teams.

My high school partner is African-American and last year we were working a tournament game at a local Air Force base. This is one of the times where I was the only white person.

I had a call, went to report it and as I was moving back into position there comes a whistle from my partner. He had just T'd a player for suggesting my calls were being made for a "reason".

We are a team out there, and if having my partner's back means having to explain something to an assignor or a coach, so be it, but I'm not going to just adjust my calls to handle the kid, hoping he gets the message. The player will get the message, and then we will move on with the game.