AFTER THE GAME ENDED.

Got a call today asking if my partner and I could double up and split up a frosh/JV double before our varsity game. I could make it earlier so I got the freshman. First mistake.

The home coach spent more time reffing than coaching, and I don't know if I'm just getting soft in my old age or just wanted to get it over with, but I let A LOT slide, that I normally would have addressed. Second mistake.

Well the game is much closer than it should be, and my partner calls a disconcertion violation on the home team and then whacks the coach with 1:05 left. Third mistake.

The visitors miss the sub FT and both T FT and then turnover the ball, so the T had zero actual impact. Home does not capitalize and a ragged minute later the horn goes off with a 4 point loss for the home team.

We are doing the usual get out of dodge when my partner stops and picks up the game ball. Mistake number four, because that slight delay kept us in the gym and not through the door to the dressing room. Home coach is running after us, giving us an ear full. I calmly ask him to stop and walk away, he doesn't and he gets louder instead.

I calmly hit the whistle, give the T and jog to the table, coach following. I get to the table and report the ejection and he loses it completely. The JV coach has to grab him and pull him away.

I now have to stew for a hour and a half of the JV game before the varsity game mad at myself for:

a) Being nice and taking the game.

b) Not handling this idiot better earlier in the game.

c) For not kicking my partner in the rear for giving a late T, after we both could/should have gotten him earlier.

d) Saying I'll be the R since it was my varsity partners turn to be the R in our game, so my frosh partner could be the R in the JV game. Thus I am the one who gets to fill out the ejection paper work.

Tomorrow is a new day, and lucky me I have a JV/varsity doubleheader that I guarantee won't go down the tubes.

BZ, BZ, BZ....

You are absolutely correct in saying there were "mistakes" made.

I can't believe you let this bush league Frosh coach b!tch you out the whole game. You are a Varsity Official...you know these lower level coaches are just slightly higher in the food chain than an assitant coach...don't you?

These lower level coaches are used to pushing around lower level officials...you gotta get into the game and show this coach who is really managing this game.

And that, IMO, is where you made your biggest mistake (and I think you know it)...you didn't really want to do the game, so you didn't really get into it. Thus, the problems...you might have just put it on auto pilot and tried to cruise through the game. You were working with a lower level official, and you should know better...you should have worked even harder with this partner. (I mean really...stopping to pick up a ball after the game?)
That'll teach you.

There...do you feel better now...I just beat you up better than you did to yourself. ;)

SHEESH!!!!

Kick him while he is down!!!

Actually my partner wasn't a lower level official, he was another varsity official that had picked up both the frosh/JV games. Had it been a sub-varsity official this coach would have been handled differently, but I'm pretty certain that I'd still been filling out ejection paper work.

A couple of examples:

Coach, "Come on, they are reaching."

Me, "Coach, they aren't hitting anything."

Coach, "But they are reaching."

Me, "Reaching isn't a foul."

Coach, "That's the first time I ever heard that."

Later coach, "They hit her arm!" player gets minimal contact as she pivots and passes to a girl who shoots a wide open 3. Shot misses and rebounder has a wide open put back that she misses too, and the ball gets tipped OOB.

Me, "Coach that was a wide open 3 and then a wide open put back, the contact did not disadvantage your player, fouls are about advantage/disadvantage"

Coach, "I don't care about advantage/disadvantage, I want the foul."

To quote the movie "Ruthless People":

Cop #1, "This may be the stupidest person on the face of the earth."

Cop #2, "Should we shoot him?"

You're talking to him way more than I've been told is healthy. Do you always do that? That question sounds kind of sassy, but it's an honest inquiry. I've always been told to never respond to a statement, and only respond once to a legitimate question. Was this one of your mistakes?

Like I said, it was not a typical game for me.

Those exchanges were all during dead ball situations and there is no way that the usual responses would have registered anyway. See the first exchange about reaching, with a real coach that knew anything about basketball, it would have ended after the not hitting anything response.

That exchange happened in the first quarter, the ad/dis was in the 4th. I pretty much ignored him in between, because nothing he said passed the Jeopardy test.

There were so many factors involved here that I'm still trying to figure out if a stop sign early would have made a difference, and in talking to the AD and assistant principle after the game, I really feel that nothing I would have done differently would have avoided the ejection, it just would have happened with time left on the clock.

Okay, that helps. I see now. You're used to a better grade of coach, with whom some conversation can be helpful. You went into this game giving him more credit that he lived up to, and he didn't rise to the occasion. Thanks.