We have 2 school boards in the city. Catholic and Public. Each school has their own athletics association, for the middle school games the public board uses certified refs. The Catholic board uses volunteer officials so the officiating isn't always of quality.

I volunteer my time to work some of these Catholic school games. I'm one of the only "patched" officials to work this league, so I usually get the top notch games. They have 3 divisions. A, B, and C with A being the highest. I was watching the B final, as I was working the A final, and was preparing for the game. The two teams were green and white. Now with 10 seconds left on the clock white is down by 1. White has the ball in their back-court and calls a timeout.

Now the first error by these officials, they had the ball thrown in after the timeout at centre court as opposed to where the ball was at the time the timeout was called.

Now, I don't think that really made much of a difference.

But this one did, on the throw-in following the timeout, green is playing awesome defence, but a white player manages to get open near the basket. The thrower throws the ball to him, and he's in a great position for the shot, when I hear a whistle. I look over to the official who administered the throw-in, and he called travelling on the thower. I was so shocked. It was horrible that such ignorance of the rules exists.

Now I was doing the next game with a "patched" official who's done the girls provincial tournament for the last 2 years, and this year is going to one of the boys tournaments, and he was in as much shock as I was. But we joked about it throughout our game.

I just felt so bad for the white team, because they had perfect position for a shot, and this official cost them it.

Now this official (who called the travel on the throw-in) also coaches AAU type ball and has felt the wrath of ref18 before, but still, if those are the calls he expects to be made on one of his games, he's up for a rude awakening. :(


Edited for spelling.

[Edited by ref18 on Feb 27th, 2005 at 08:35 PM]

Did the coach survive the wrath of the mighty Whackinator?

http://www.feebleminds-gifs.com/donderwolk.gif

Love the picture JR!! It's great!!! :) :D

Are you sure there wasn't a throw in violation for moving off the spot and the official just mistakenly used the traveling mechanic? After all, you said you had to look over at the official after hearing the whistle which implies you were not looking at the thrower during the throwin.

I was looking at the thower during the throw in, until he let go of the ball. It was a late whistle, the thrower didn't leave his spot, just shuffled his feet. Completely legal.

Even if it was a blown call, the ref didn't cost the team the game. The team in question likely had many opportunities to prevent being down by 1 at that point in the game. Don't be so quick to puke on a volunteer ref. You get what you pay for.

Yup, how many layups did they miss?

Now it was a good game, both teams played well and were evenly matched. Some shots were missed, but overall not many were taken as both teams had exceptional defence.

I guess the real reason it pissed me off was because, this person has been volunteering for a few years, and has been making stupid calls like this for a while. I've tried to explain the correct rule and interpretation, but this person is just so ignorant he doesn't care. It has to be done his way. Maybe he didn't cost the team the game, but he made a call that directly affected the outcome of the game.

Get in, get done, and get out. :)

It's "defense".

I don't really get why you took this so personally. You're a first year ref, correct? No doubt you still have a lot to learn as well. Volunteers should take no crap from anyone. If the leagues want to pay for better refs, they have that option. Otherwise, again, they get what they pay for.

It depends on where you are.

At last count, I've been doing this for 4 years.

So you know it all then? How can you rip on a volunteer? Why take it so personally that you get pissed off about it? Maybe your gripe should be with the league - try and get them to pay for referees so they can get more quality officiating. There's no excuse for ripping on a volunteer.

I'm not ripping on the volunteer, I volunteer for this too. I also try to give the kids a well reffed game, the same game I'd give if I was on the floor doing a boys varsity game. The fact that I've discussed this rule and others with this official in the past, but yet nothing seems to stick with him. I think if he doesn't want to do the best possible job, then he's doing the kids a disservice, and he shouldn't be there.

In my opinion there were other refs more deserving of that game. Refs who care, refs who know what there doing, and will give the kids a well reffed game.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of adults who would be reluctant to take advice from an 18 year old. Right or wrong. Perhaps it's the way you "discussed" it. Perhaps it's something entirely else. Point is, you will find that there are ways to communicate with people that will be effective and ways that will be ineffective. Maybe if you looked at this situation from a different perspective you would see that perhaps you are more a part of the problem, and not enough a part of the solution.

I'll bet this guy is doing the best possible job that he can do. Why volunteer his time if he was trying to be bad at what he's doing? You think you know more, and maybe you do, but it's really irrelevant. Work on your communication skills so that when you do try and educate someone about a particular rule, it comes across in a way they will accept your input. Being a good referee and teaching someone else to be a good referee are 2 entirely different skills.