What a Saturday, calling with my son (forth week on the floor). Had three real smooth games…that should have been our clue that all H was about to break loose.

YMCA, 7 grade boys…well played game with very few fouls not physical…in fact it was very tame; coaches hadn’t said a word about the officiating. There was a question about a back court call my partner made, but he seemed to like the answer he was given. Just after the start of the last quarter, partner calls a block on a drive to the basket. The free throw bounces off; there is the usual scramble for control. Just as we start going the other way, B1 takes both hands and shoves A2 across the lane and halfway to the bench. I blow my whistle and get in between them, A2 starts cussing and walking toward B1. My partner gets to him about the same time as B2 (who grabbed his teammate around the waist from behind). By this time A3 and A4 and pulling A2 toward the opposite sideline. We issue each a flagrant T. Partner and I get the players on the floor together to calm them everyone down…games finishes without incident. For those two, the season is over as they must sit two games for the flagrant techs and there are just two weeks remaining.

Very next game, same ages. Close game between evenly matched teams. With about a minute and a half left in the game the visiting team gets a 5 point lead. Visiting team gets the ball in their front court, a player from home team comes out and I’m ready to call a foul at first touch figuring he wants to stop the clock. V1 passes to V2 who is near the middle of the floor; H1 turns toward him and without even trying to make it look good pushes V2 with both hands. TWEET, I call the intentional foul. H1 starts to complain, I tell him he didn’t leave me any choice with the two handed push. He whines “But I needed to stop the clock.” I say “Learn to do it better, now drop it and line up.” I start to report the foul and he said, rather loudly “That call sucks.”…TWEET…Tech. I start reporting by saying “Two fouls on white 11…” scorekeeper holds up 5 at that point so I decide to cut the kid some slack and not make it a flagrant T. Partner comes over to tell the coach that was 5 on No. 11. Coach goes nuts that we fouled out his best shooter in crunch time. Partner is trying to calm him down and says “Coach, its done, let it go” and holds up the stop sign. Coach yells “You guys are costing my kids this game” TWEET…T on white coach. Visiting team hits all six free throws. We go to inbound the ball and all the kids for white are sitting on the bench. I let blue inbound, they dribble a second or two then I blow my whistle and announce “Game…blue wins.” I see someone out of the corner of my eye charging across the floor toward the white team bench…it is the Director of Athletics for the Y…he tells the coach he is suspended for the rest of the season.

Last games went as smooth as glass.

Sorry for the long post…First ejection for me…first forfeit for me, first T for my son. A weekend to remember.


[Edited by LarryS on Feb 14th, 2005 at 10:26 AM]

Once the HS season is done, I'm going to have my 15 year old daughter start calling youth games with me. We've been going thru the Rules/Case books and quizing her knowledge. We've discussed alot of possible situations that could arise. Of course there is no way to cover them all but I hope she's ready for a game like you had and that she's ready to stand up to players/coaches who WILL challenge her, otherwise it could be a difficult time for a Dad who wil protect his little girl.

I'm pretty sure that this comment shouldn't be flagrant in any case. "Sucks" is hardly profanity and, even tho it was directed at you, it pretty much amounts to "that call was terrible." What would be your reasoning behind giving a flagrant for "sucks"? Just curious.

Definitely a forfeit, but I think I probably would've called it even before inbounding the ball. If they refuse to come out and play, I'd make sure the coach understood what would happen. Then if they don't come out, call it over. JMO.

Chuck...under normal circumstances the "Sucks" comment would not be flagrant for me, but I was considering it because of what had happened the previous game. Looking back, I'm glad the T was the 5th foul...I would have regretted tossing him later on.

BTW, I thought about calling the game before the inbound...just wanted everyone there to be aware that I gave them every chance to finish the game. If it had been a high school game I probably would have handled it the other way but I see your point.

First foul was not a technical. It is a flagrant personal foul because it involved contact on the floor during a live ball. The second foul is a T. I hope you administered these in the order in which they happened with A2's sub shooting his free throws.