Butt chewing

[Junker]

Looking back, I know I shouldn't have done this....but....
Friday night and Saturday I worked a 5th grade tournament in a nearby town just because they treat officials very well. Friday night was smooth, but Saturday morning started off rocky. In the first game, I actually warned a coach about one of his players disagreeing with our calls. When said player earned his T in the second half, the coach actually questioned it. In this game I also had a T for staying out of bounds (I had no choice, the player threw the inbound pass, ran the entire length of the baseline oob and came in, caught a pass and put it in. First time I have ever called this) and I T'd up an assistant from the other team. In the second game, there were two fans that were on us from the get go. Travel, three seconds, so on and so forth. At the end of the first quarter I went to the bench and loudly enough so the entire crowd could hear informed my timer (who was also a member of the organization running the tournament) that if those two gentlemen (pointing specifically at the jerks) had anything else to say they could say it from the parking lot. Then for some reason, I went into teacher mode and chewed the guys out myself. I told them we were there to teach the kids basketball and sportsmanship. What were they teaching their kids by sitting up there complaining. Then I told them if they wanted to yell and scream there were plenty of games on TV so they could go home and yell at the TV because we were finished listening to it. All the time, about 4 fans sitting around these guys were nodding their heads and saying "that's right". I was actually, almost mad for the first time ever on the floor. Anyway, the rest of the afternoon, we heard absolutely nothing from the crowd except encouragement for the players. The two guys I chewed out actually stayed and kept their mouths shut. After the tournament, when I went to another site to get paid, all of the organizers were patting me on the back and telling me they were very glad someone finally took care of that sort of thing. Again, I know it wasn't the most professional way to handle the situation, but I just kind of went off. It would never happen in a real game, but it did make our day much better. Hopefully the embarassment stays with those guys for a while. Okay, this book of a post is pretty much over.

[w_sohl]

I had to do the same thing in a 3rd grade game once. One of those stupid rules where you have to play man, big kid was drifting and standing in the post and were were not catching it right away. Some mother from the stands kept yelling, "my kid can't shoot!" and was getting worse as the game progressed. I finally stopped and told the lady that the kids were not here to win, they were there to learn basketball and sportsmanship and if she continued that I would have to ask her to leave.

This was like my first or second year officiating.

[Adam]

Jeff,
Sometimes our guidelines go out the window in games like this. The fact that it's not normal behavior for a ref may have been enough to jolt these dolts. Hopefully it won't happen again.
You going to Iowa City next month?

[Junker]

I'm guessing I'll probably go to Iowa City. I want to check and see if they're doing any 3 man high school. It only mentioned 2 man high school in the flier. I'll drop you an email when I make my decision.

[cmathews]

I had one of those parent moments as well. I will just ignore the 3 seconds, your blind, blah blah blah stuff...but this was a 5th grade game, we are administering a free throw, I hear mr jerk man behind me questioning something, I move back so that he can hear, and mention that they had openings for next year to officiate the tournament, then he mentioned "you suck" and started to expalain why. At this point I turned around, he was in the front row, walked over to him and told him that I didn't want to hear anymore, and if he didn't have the gumption to put on the stripes and whistle he could sit there and shut up...it was really hard not to add some ^$%&#($&$ in between shut and up, but I did. He watched the rest of the game in silence and the next day as one of my partners was exiting the rest room, mr jerk guy said hello sir how are you doing today...so maybe it worked....

[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by cmathews
I had one of those parent moments as well. I will just ignore the 3 seconds, your blind, blah blah blah stuff...but this was a 5th grade game, we are administering a free throw, I hear mr jerk man behind me questioning something, I move back so that he can hear, and mention that they had openings for next year to officiate the tournament, then he mentioned "you suck" and started to expalain why. At this point I turned around, he was in the front row, walked over to him and told him that I didn't want to hear anymore, and if he didn't have the gumption to put on the stripes and whistle he could sit there and shut up...it was really hard not to add some ^$%&#($&$ in between shut and up, but I did. He watched the rest of the game in silence and the next day as one of my partners was exiting the rest room, mr jerk guy said hello sir how are you doing today...so maybe it worked....

A loooooong time ago I was doing a 6th or 7th grade girl's game. Small gym, quite a few folks in the place. I was inbounding the ball and some yutz sitting in the first row was screaming literally into my @ss what he thought of me. Before I gave the ball to the player I told him to relax. I thought I was being nice about it but 1 thing led to the next and before you knew it he was being escorted out to his car. As he was leaving he was loudly demanding my name, he was gonna report me, blah blah blah. I told him my name wass Teddy Valentine, he left saying "Our paths will cross again Teddy!"

Later one of the players was on the bench crying, the coach told me the yutz was her father and he's done that a few times before. Sad really.

[garote]

I think you did the right thing. Fans are supposed to cheer their team. I don't know why it's become acceptable to berate everyone else that is not part of "your" team.

[ChrisSportsFan]

25 point loss, after the game from the center court area; Hey Refs, "YOU SUCK, HOW ABOUT COMING OUT IN THE HALLWAY SO WE CAN DISCUSS SOME OF THOSE CALLS". Ignore, ignore, ignore. Write up report and Mr. Jerk has to miss the rest of his kids season because he can't control himself. I see this team again a few weeks later and 5-6 parents approach me with a "thanks for taking care of him". BTW, his Son played alot better the second time I saw them. I wonder why?

[Mark Padgett]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dan_ref

At this point I turned around, he was in the front row

A perfect opportunity to blow your whistle directly into his ear prior to the inbound play.

[cmathews]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mark Padgett

Originally posted by Dan_ref

A perfect opportunity to blow your whistle directly into his ear prior to the inbound play.

Yes it would have been, I will try to remember that next time LOL....and the rest of the fans are just collatoral damage LOL