We had a very interesting situation happen two weeks ago during a local tournament. On the last night of the tournament my crew arrived at the tournament site to be greeted at the front gate with a gentleman handing out a free gift from the tournament sponsors. The free gifts were signs for the fans which said "GOOD CALL" on one side and "BAD CALL" on the other side. Granted the initial reaction was funny, this situation could have festered into something beyond laughter!! In the wake of some outrageous acts of unsportsmanship, can we sweep this situation under the rug or approach administration? Fans, coaches, and referees should lead by example. What example should we set?

Just ignore the signs unless on of them ends up on the court.

The problem in this case is the administration. They have control over what is said or stated on signs at their events. At my HS, we are not allowed to chant anything "offensive" to the other team or the officials. If students do so, they are removed, and adults have been asked to not come back as well if they are too bad. That is not to say that our fans don't yell at officials, cuz they do, but it is not as bad as most places. Last week and our high school game the opposing HS kids were chanting "bull****" about an officials call and nothing was done about it. 100% administration problem!!! The administration should not have allowed the signs and that is all there is to it. For someone who says, they didn't know it, it is their job to know it and if they are doing their job, they would have known it.

Are signs allowed in your states?

In New Jersey, signs are not permitted in the gym for high school games. I would absolutely go to the administration and have the signs removed.

Wow. That's a new low, I can't believe that they're getting away with this.

Now, having said this, did the fans use the signs at all during the game??? Just curious :)

And which sign did they use the most? :D

To be honest...

I find it kind of funny. It'd be better if there were, say, different colors on either side. If they could just flash those instead of screaming!

I'm sorry, I just got a kick out of that, I'd love to see it! :)

Couldn't care less. Since I don't look into the crowd during a game, I'd notice that a lot less than if they were vocal about a call.

Schools around here would never allow that, but that's an administrative issue. If it bugs you, have it worked through your local officials association or A.D. association.

Z

Perhaps they should've handed out cards with big numbers from 1-10. Then they could've rated the officials' performance.:-P