PEEWEE gone bad

[hooper]

Mom,

For new and young officials, keeping track of alternating posessions can be one of things that can be very difficult. There's a lot going on in the game and unless the scorekeeper has a posession arrow or the ref is really good at using the rubber-band-around-alternating-wrists trick, you'll often get one team getting the ball two, three or even four times in a row. And if the scorekeeper isn't good at helping the ref (if they have a posession arrow), then that could cause problems as well.

The other thing that can happen is that the referee might make a call but not signal it very well, causing confusion by the fans over whether the alternating posession rule comes into play.

It just sounds like the youngster who was refereeing was in over his head. Most basketball games have at least two and often three referees. One newbie alone can become overwhelmed pretty quickly.

I would just chalk this up to a bad day and let it go. None of us want to see our kids cheated out of something, but this can be used as a character building lesson in what to do on the court when you feel like things aren't going your way.

Guaranteed, if your child keeps playing, they'll have games like this once in awhile. Tell your child, "Sometimes you have to play better than the other team and overcome the other circumstances in the game as well." That could be officiating, the other coach yelling like a howler monkey, rabid parents screaming from the stands, a smelly defender, a ball that feels too flat, a gym that has no room on the sidelines, a defender who's quicker or bigger or more aggressive, teammates who aren't as good as you or ball hogs, etc.

(P.S. JRutledge is a little prickly. Don't take it personally.)