My New Strategy for Dealing with Complaints in Intermurals

[blindzebra]

Originally posted by bradfordwilkins
canuckrefguy - a risk I'm willing to take hehe. To be honest, anything that would make an *** out of me already has a provision in the inTRAmurals guidelines.

The captain of either team has the ability at anytime to call for a "Protest." Essentially, equivilent to a challenge in football without the use of instant replay. Certain things are challengeable, for instance how many shots someone has or who gets possession on a double foul or anything of that nature. Eye-ball calls, for instance
fouls or out of bounds calls can't be "Protested."

Depending on the openess of a situation, sometimes in-between calls are allowed for traveling and such. For instance, at another court (not my game) one time a player was dribbling and fell down while dribbling, continued their dribble and got back up. Ref called travel and the Captain protested. Since neither party disagreed on the continuation of the dribble, it was eligible for Protest. Had the ref said that the player picked up his dribble in his eyes, it would not have been a "protestable" situation (just a miscall, as if that was his view it'd be a dd)

The purpose of the rule book goes more for halftime teaching sessions on a lot of the myths, like the examples I mentioned in my orginal post. These kids have been playing basketball their whole life and realistically have never looked at a rule book. I think that intimidation alone will hopefully give them a new perspective into our job and give them further clarity on the rules.

The disrespectful ones realistically I won't get into a confrontations with. I'll smile and do my job. The rule book is for those who are somewhat decently cordial. Whenever I have a quick moment after a ruling of a myth call, I like to give a quick explanation if we have a second. Wishful thinking I know that everyone cares what the rules are, but at least I've made that effort.

And if I'm made a fool of, I'll be the first to laugh at myself and admit fault. With only a little under 80 games under my belt in the last month (about 15-20 a week), I'm always learning.

So the rulebook is there for me too. The other day after a game where we had an intentional foul and a made bucket, I wasn't sure on procedure. We went with two free throws and the ball, but I made sure to double check after the game. In the past I'd check when I got home, but on days where you are doing 5 games or Sundays when I do upwards of 7-8 games, it'll be nice to get the info earlier in case there are any duplicates.

Wow I just wrote a novel. Just some thoughts

Keep the rule book in your bag.

You have 80 games under your belt, and several experienced officials have said it is a bad idea, that will only cause more problems.

Our job is to enforce the rules, not to teach a lesson to the idiots playing in rec leagues. It is not professional and at your experience level you run the risk of losing credibility.

Like I said earlier, if they ask about a rule, break it out at half time or after the game. Teach in a non-confrontational manor, but telling them, "The books at the table, look it up," does nothing but lower you to their level.

[PS2Man]

I think having a rulebook at the table is very unprofessional. There is nothing good that can come out of this. You might be able to teach one or two clowns a specific rule but that is not going to solve all the problems.

I would just not do that. It might come back to bite you.

[bigwes68]

Best way to deal with chronic complainers in intramurals:

Send 'em to the house.

That's how we deal with them at good ol' UT. I've thrown out about 4-5 players this year (not necessarily proud of it, but at $5.50 per game, I'm not putting up with any BS).

Didn't have any problems tonight (2nd night of playoffs) but had to toss a kid Monday night...I called a foul on him and he said something to the effect of, "Why don't you go eat another Krispy Kreme, lard-butt?"

It was really weird tonight, though -- one of our best officials and intramural supervisors got ejected from his team's game on Monday for cursing out one of the officials (and ended up causing his team to forfeit the game)...and they still let him officiate tonight -- with me. I must say, he's one of the best partners I've had all year, but I don't think I would have let him come back after something like that.

[bradfordwilkins]

Yea, it may come to ejecting players during the playoffs.

During the regular season though, if someone is tossed they are suspended for the season and possibly from intramurals for a year. Usually after a technical foul they will quiet down. When you've got seniors in the playoffs who don't care about suspensions is what worries me.

thanks for your thought

[Axe Man]

bradford...does Kurt know you are keeping the rule book at the table? Just wondering his thoughts on this. With my program at Purdue, I would discourage my officials from doing this. Players will never know the rules, particularly at the IM level. They play too much pickup ball.

Wes...it is a bit strange that Jackie let the supervisor continue to work after getting ejected but I have no doubt that he had a long talk with the supervisor. He will always do what is in the best interest of the program.

Good luck in playoffs guys. We start tomorrow night.

[bigwes68]

Originally posted by Axe Man
bradford...does Kurt know you are keeping the rule book at the table? Just wondering his thoughts on this. With my program at Purdue, I would discourage my officials from doing this. Players will never know the rules, particularly at the IM level. They play too much pickup ball.

Wes...it is a bit strange that Jackie let the supervisor continue to work after getting ejected but I have no doubt that he had a long talk with the supervisor. He will always do what is in the best interest of the program.

Good luck in playoffs guys. We start tomorrow night.

I imagine a lot of it had to do with the fact that he is one of our best officials. We do need him on the floor in the later rounds of the playoffs because there are only about 3-4 of us that know 3-man mechanics. He just needs to learn to calm down when he's playing...he knows better.

Jackie has been great to us officials, I trust his judgment on just about everything.

[Axe Man]

Jackie is one of the really good guys. I understand where he is coming from. I have always had the rule that if you are one of my officials and get ejected from a game, your done. I had one of my best officials do that last year. We worked out a solution and he kept working. He is one of my top 5 this year and is working middleschool and JV.

[bradfordwilkins]

Just FYI after all the suggestions, I've decided against bringing out the rulebook to the table.

Thanks for the advice