What's the Point?

[ChuckElias]

Originally posted by tarheelcoach
Rainmaker, thanks for your advice. That's pretty much what my AD said - inexperienced refs sometimes get assigned games,

Coach, Juulie's (rainmaker's) comment is right on the money. At the middle school level, you can almost count on getting inexperienced refs, b/c that's where they get their experience. Inexperienced refs haven't always developed a sense for what is "appropriate and defendable" at every point of a ballgame.

Inexperienced officials get crammed full of rules and points of emphasis and where to stand and where to look. Bench decorum (including who is allowed to be off the bench) is a perpetual point of emphasis in many areas.

It is at least possible that you had an inexperienced official who knew (correctly) that your assistant is not allowed to coach while standing during any live ball in the game -- ever; but hasn't learned yet that a T in that situation is not a call we want to "live and die" with.

So while no one here (or hopefully in your locker room) will say that this official cost you the game, I think that if the situation happened as you describe it, we could probably agree that the T was not an appropriate call for that point of the ballgame.