For the second weekend now, I worked a rec basketball tournament. This one was called the "Thanksgiving Classic," and I sure did put the "T" in Thanksgiving. In the first game of the tournament (I did eight over Saturday and Sunday). I gave out 6 T's. I'm looking for a little feedback over that game.

Situation: 7th grade boys, evenly matched and pretty good basketball game up until this point. My partner kept whistling my lines, which was aggravating, but not a huge deal. Then Coach A, who has been chirping and waving his arms all game, gets a warning from me. A few seconds later I call a foul on his team and he grabs his hat off his hand and throws it to the ground. Technical 1. I take a few steps to go report the foul, and the coach gives me the finger. Technical 2. We continue the game, and about 4 minutes later, player A gets fouled (not that hard, just a bump) on the sidelines by player B. B starts to walk away and A wheels and throws the basketball at the back of his head. Flagrant technical. We finish the first half and partner says to me at halftime "I'm not sure if I would have called those technicals. I've never even called a technical, and I've been refereeing for 14 years." I was a little shocked, to put it mildly.

The second half wasn't much better. A player on A steps out of bounds and I call it. Still a close game. He yells "F*ck you" at me. Technical 4. Then he spits at me (fortunately it wasn't very accurate). Technical 5. A few minutes later, Assistant Coach A (now the head coach) asks for a timeout when they have the ball and I grant it. Then he takes a few steps out on the court, clapping, and says "Good call. That's your best one this half!" Technical 6. A few minutes later, a player from team A gets down on hands and knees and crawls across the lane and barks. I had no idea what he was doing, so I just left that alone. By this point, Team B has pulled in front and they win the game. I didn't have a problem for the rest of day. Then on Sunday, I worked with one of my regular partners, all 3 games were fine. The tournament had teams from 3 different leagues, and officials from all 3, which is why I think my partner for Saturday and I were on such different pages.

Looking back on the fiasco that was the first game Saturday, I'm hoping to learn a little something from it. Would you have given out T's for those? What could I do differently (better) in the future?

As described YES they were all justified, and short of calling the game a travesty there is nothing else you could have done.

I might have told my partner perhaps he needs to re-evaluate his idea of what warrents a T.;)

Those all sound pretty warranted. I'm not sure what led up to all the outlandish behavior.... without being there, not sure if there were things that could have been done to curb the behavior before it got to that point or if these were just out-of-control teams that didn't understand any boundaries. If your partner has been reffing for 14 years and never called a T, that might be part of the problem as he has no clue about establishing any behavior boundaries.

Leave that game behind you and move on.... far, far behind you.

Z

All good Ts, sounded like a rough game but definitely all good Ts. Just curious, had the one player that cussed at you, would you have called it flagarant if he hadn't spit at you?

Gotta agree with BZ & ZM. All the T's were warranted.

Look at the pattern: all the T's were on team A. Obviously the coaches attitude has been passed on to his assistant & players - possibly because he's been getting away with it for a while.

This needs to get passed back to whoever is responsible for the league he coaches in. IMHO he has no business coaching youth sports.

This guy is an idiot. Forget about anything he said to you.

I call this a flagrant T.

I don't even make that call. He is NOT the HEAD coach. He does NOT get promoted when the other moron leaves. He is still just an assistant. He can't use the coaching box, nor may he request a time-out. IMO.

Absolutely, without hesitation or remorse.

If you were the Referee, not the Umpire, you could forfeit the game somewhere around technical number 4, maybe 5.
Otherwise, great job! Glad there are people like you out there officiating.
PS Where do you officiate?

Where were the parents in all of this? If my kid played on that team, i think that would be our last game with that coach. My guess is that wasn't their worst game, and i bet they've gotten away with some of that stuff before. it seems that whenever you have an arguementative coach, it also shows up in his players and fans. I'm not sure that game should have made it to the final buzzer.

At my Thanksgiving Tourney, the Mom that was working the clock warned us that last year, one of their Moms threw her shoe at a ref. After we laughed about it, i told her we'd try and do a better job but that if she throws her shoe, she ain't getting it back.

All the T's were warrented. Throwing the hat seemed kind of harmless, but you had already warned him, and I expect players and coaches to tone down all behavior like that when I give warnings (even if he was just frustrated with his team). The assistant walking out onto the court and clapping, I might not have given that one, but I wasn't in the game situation (after calling the other 5 technicals). Just a matter of opinion. Now if this is a soccer game, he get the yellow guaranteed (if I can give it) for entering the field.

As for some preventative officiating, I would have talked to both coaches and both captains after about the 3rd technical. I would have given everyone, including the other team (who seemed to be behaving) a warning that no more of what was going on would be tolerated.

[Edited by SpeedyGonGoalie on Nov 30th, 2004 at 09:04 AM]

I think I would have waved off the game when rover started barking.

Speedy, just curious why you would apply a different standard of judgement to the coaches action in bball as opposed to soccer. A T seems about equivalent to a yellow card to me.

BITS,
I agree 100% with you on this. I do quite a bit of HS soccer, too. Even got the state final this year.

I have a question. Where was the tournament director. I would blame the tournament director for allowing this to escalate. Sounds to me that you did the best that you could and that your partner was an idiot.

Unreal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All this crap in a 7TH GRADE game. Wow, is sportsmanship going down the tubes this fast.... or it is these younger kids watching too much of the NBA?? :) Nice job, I say mega dittos to everyone else, they deserved all the Ts.

T Jones

As described every one of those Ts were well deserved.
As for you partner, he needs to find a new hobby.
I have always said; "if you don't have the balls to make the call get off the court."
From the sound of it, he needs to get a plumber to check his equipment.

Sorry you had to have a game like that but they do happen.

Sara, hopefully by now any doubt that you may have had about your actions has been completely erased. Your actions were absolutely correct.

Personally, I probably would've called the game a forfeit after the F-U comment, and definitely would've called a forfeit after the spitting.