....but it sure wasn't basketball either, sir.

I worked a girls varsity game last night. Flow? What flow. I was surprised the game was as close as it was when I looked at the boxscore this morning -- the difference was 3 points at the half, 4 after 3Q, and 5 points at the end.

It was the type of game that couldn't possibly make the officials look good. About 60 turnovers, players diving on the floor, lots and lots of contact, about 15 held balls. I kept telling myself "call advantage/disadvantage," but I could tell that the parents and coaches were used to officials calling every little bit of contact fouls (or at least that's the way they acted).

I looked at the boxscore in the paper this morning, and we called a total of 27 fouls -- not a lot, but not like we called 8 or something.

I guess it's time I try to find a point to this post:

Why do I feel so much more comfortable calling a sloppy boys game than a sloppy girls game?

Oh, and I need an answer by about 3PM CST, cause I have another one tonight.

--Rich

To quote someone famous

Get in,
Get done,
Get out.

I had much the same conversation with some officials last weekend. We came to the conclusion that it has to do with boys being able to play through more contact (advantage/disadvantage) than most girl players. This topic came up because I worked a couple of 1A games over the weekend after working a couple of weeks of 3A basketball. My crew and I probably looked terrible to the 1A fans, players, and coaches because a lot of contact we were used to passing on, looked like a horrible collision with 1A players. We had a hard time adjusting and didn't feel as though we worked a very good game. As always, the better the players, the easier it is for us to call the game. Also, speaking in generalities here of course, it seems that most boys teams eventually figure out what we are calling and aren't. In girl's games it seems that they don't adjust as well throughout the game.

I see the same thing Junker does. I work some games in a 4A conference, where the level of acceptable contact is much higher than the 1A and 2A schools I work. This is particularly true of girls games. Those fans always want every little touch called in those small school girls games.

"Hey, ref, this isn't football...."

I wonder what gave them that impression but here's a few ideas:

1. Officials did not wear collars or knickers.
2. No fieldgoals in sight.
3. Football is not generally played on a wood court.
4. While teams were running their offense, officials did not call for penalties on multiple forward passes.
5. Team benches were on the sames side of field/ court.

Oh, I could go on but no need as you already had a fan inform everyone in the gym that he has identified this sporting competition is not football.

because a sloppy boys game is like a perfect girls game.

basketball has field goals. They don't have goal posts.

Ha. I think I set a personal record for traveling calls last night. I had at least six. My partner had a similar number. Juulie is right and that's what we were saying on the way home last night.

A couple of weeks ago we had a freshman girls game with 12 jump balls in the first half. We were at 7 during the quarter break so every one after that the table was rolling their eyes and laughing. It was kind of tragically funny.

Ahh yes, been there. Girl's game are much more difficult for the exact reason you said. They can't play through as much contact. This gets my partner and I in trouble sometimes because we try to keep the flow that you need.

I still like doing girl's games though, it seems they are there to have fun and don't take it as life and death as most boys teams.

Games get easier to call as the level increases. I had to laugh working with a guy last month who did mostly 4A HS games - he was nervewrecked by halftime during our 5th-6th grade girls AAU-type game.

My worst game of the 2005 (and that I can remember being a part of ever) so far was a frosh boys game two weeks ago. 41 fouls (23 on white, 18 on red) - and the fans said we were letting them get away with murder. At least both coaches were sympathetic - I guess they knew what they had.

Don't think of this as a record... I expect that you'll have plenty worse. I know I have - even at the varsity level.

For the sake of conversation, what is the record on the big board? Anybody have a +50 foul game recently?

I don't think I've had a 50+ foul game yet. I did have a very sloppy frosh game about a month ago that had about 20+ fouls in the first half. My partner (being even newer than me) was calling some ticky-tack stuff and I had a few of my own that probably didn't help.

We agreed during halftime to try and call less fouls and I think we did minimize it to "less than 20" in the 2nd half. (how much less, I don't remember). :)


The funny thing was that both schools were catholic schools. One was a city school that has had pretty good frosh teams in the past few years (not this year). The other school is from the suburbs and they have a fine varsity squad but the frosh weren't all that great.

What made it worst (and I hate this about a lot of games in our area), is both teams were "trying" to press. With a lack of quickness on the defensive end, and relatively few ball handlers on both sides, it made for a long dragged out affair.

One perception I have is that in a boy's game, when a player gets a defensive rebound, the other nine run to the other end of the court. In a girl's game, it's a signal to attack the rebounder.