Okay guys, just got back from a JV game and here is what happened. during the game which was a close one i hear a parent *****ing about calling the game fair, both ways etc. I ignore it and continue on. At half time myself and my partner are sitting on the bench as teams are in the locker room, the stands are on the opposite side so a parent comes up to us and says are you guys paid for this or is it volunteer. I told him we were paid and he continued to say "then that explains why you are not calling the game fair" etc.

I told him his place is in the stands and if you cannot act like an adult then maybe you should leave the gym, he told me to "go to hell" so i told the athletic director and the AD escorted the parent (nice role model) to leave the gym.

Did i do the right thing, should i have ignored it??

Any thoughts

Its ok to ignore what happens in the stands, but the parent approaching you changes the whole complexion of the encounter. You were correct to notify game management, but I would have been satisfied with a warning to the parent and an understanding between him and management that a recurrence of that type of behavior would certainly lead to his eviction from the facility.

How bout this response..."I am definitely not getting paid to answer your questions"!

Or, "What difference does that make?

I just thought of this one, "you paid more to get in the game than I get to have to listen to you".

Yeh, I'm in one of my moods.

How bout since he is on the floor and in your face, you just punch him or body slam'em to the ground. Hell, fans do it to officials and the courts slap them on the hands.

hmmmmm. I wonder if.....

Nahhh...Officials have way too much integrity to do that!

[Edited by thumpferee on Jan 18th, 2005 at 08:57 PM]

You did the right thing, you didn't talk back to the fans and you let game management kick his a$$ outta there. Good job.

I'm with Ref18. If they stay in the stands, fine. If they come after you, get them the hell outa there. One Pittsburgh was enough for all of us. You never know what these morons are gonna do.

It's nice to see that Pittsburgh has become the Alamo of officiating.

Unfortunately it's only one of the Alamos. Just the most recent one.

At half time myself and my partner are sitting on the bench as teams are in the locker room.

Can't help thinking, that if you were in the locker room you wouldn't have had to deal with the idiot!

That's true. But in none of the games in football or basketball that I've ever worked have my partner(s) and I gone to another room. We have usually just stood off to the side.

But I agree - from the stands, whatever. It p!sses me off, but I'm trying to learn to ignore it. But if you feel the need to approach me (and God knows what you're going to do then), your a$$ is mine. I'm going to get you removed, and if you make a threatening move in my direction, you're going down.

I believe it's true that the perfect officiating gig would be in an orphanage league.

Sometimes when you are doing underclass games the locker rooms are too far away to go to for half time. Many times you have no choice but to hang out by the table. Never had a parent approach me (I guess I've been lucky so far) like that at half time. I have arranged for game management to eject unruly fans. Fortunately it has only happened a couple of times.

Agree.

Disagree. Somebody comes out of the stands to tell me to go to hell and they get a one way ticket to the parking lot. Bye.

I agree....

I was looking at this post and thinking that there has to be SOMEWHERE close to the court that the officials could go at halftime. Sitting on the bench at halftime is too tempting...

Not always. Did a middle school game last night where the only thing near the gym that was open was the boys locker room; shared by boys from both teams (only the home team used it at half time.)

I did two JV games last night and the officials locker room was about half way across the school from our gym. To get there, we would have had to walk through the fans milling around in the halls (and by the concession) and cut through the gym where the varsity games were taking place. Much easier to sit on the bench. However, there was a city police officer standing at both ends of the court to make sure nobody tried to get on the floor.

After the game one of them walked with us till we were out of the area where fans we moving freely.

Sporting events bring out all sorts of characters and most fans are decent enough. It is important to let them know when they've crossed the line and fans usually don't know it until it's too late. Part of the problem is the consistency between officials and similar circumstances. Where one official bounced this fan out of the gym (rightly so, I will add) the next guy will just tell the guy to go back to his seat.

Basically, he can listen to the game on the radio tonight. Cause he's gone in a heart beat. Not trying to put a negative spin on this. But what were you doing sitting on the bench? I never do this.

and not the last one. Thirty years ago you never heard about a fan or a parent assaulting or threatening a sports official. Ten years ago a single incident in a year would make headlines. Today it seems like between football, basketball and hockey fans, there are multiple major incidents every season. Hang on to your socks because these things seem to have to run their cycles (teen suicide late 80s-90s; Columbine-like events are two good examples where hideous deeds inspire more of the same). Unfortunately, a simple court admonishment (bad boy, don't do it again) such as occurred in Pittsburgh does nothing to turn the tide.

The problem in every instance is the incompetence of game management. If a major incident takes place at a school, the school should be liable in some capacity as well as the crazy fans. In my area, it's like pulling teeth simply to get a room for officials, even to change in, and game management acts as if they are doing us a huge favor to give us anything, especially for sub-varsity contests. Too often, the only person with keys to the room where I keep my stuff is the coach of the home team, one of the last people I want to see after a game. There is game management, but in the worst sites, they are oblivious, and sometimes don't even dress in an identifiable way. I'm surprised more doesn't happen in JV/frosh games when there is often no uniformed game management and everything runs through the coach. I doubt any cases of official assault happen in places where game management is present and actually cares about the officials and takes the extra step to ensure that we know that someone will back us up and not hang us out to dry. The more the onus is put on schools to provide a certain level of security at schools with consequences for failing, the fewer of these incidents there will be.

As an aside, with the fan coming up to you, if you didn't explicitly have that fan removed, I bet game management would've said, "Now Mr. Fan you shouldn't do that, OK," and that would be it.