Happy Saturday all,

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. In any case, I have another question I want to ask to see what people think.

As with most of the refs here, I ref my share of high school, youth/CYO, and adult rec league basketball.

My question is do the refs work their other NON-HIGH SCHOOL games like they were a high school? Or do they make allowances for the fact that there are youth or older adults playing?

THe reason I ask is because I've had a couple situations that occured during adult leagues/tournaments. One was a real tough backcourt violation call during a championship game in a tournament. THe woman with the ball may have "BARELY" grazed the halfcourt line and it ultimately cost their team the game.

The other was calling a violation for a player going out of bounds without the ball this past week.

I was given an earful on the first situation by the referee who had organized all of us to work the tournament last summer.

Basically, after talking to a few officials, I've been basically told that these adults pay to play and that they should be allowed to "play through things" and not call ticky-tack stuff.

Obviously, even though I've worked adult leagues before, my high school training has been kicking in and I am having a tough time continually switching gears.

Any comments?

Obviously you are going to have to change the way you officiate when you are doing different levels.

Somethings are black and white, backcourt is a B&W call. Are you going to let a player who stepped OOB (but just barely) go just because they barely touched the line?

The biggest thing that should change is judgement calls, for example contact. Older kids (and adults) can play through more contact than 7th graders. You will have to adjust accordingly.

Hope that helps.

You've got a decision to make. The one who decides who refs also will decide how the games will be officiated. Your decision is whether or not you can adjust. Line calls, like back court violations, are tough to let go based on instinct. Our reflexes kick in sometimes and the whistle takes on a life of its own.
That said, if the organizers want you to let it go, you'll have to either let it go or not work those games.

For the tournament I went to last summer, I am planning to pass on it this time around (assuming I even get asked to do it again).

I was particularly unhappy at how things went and I felt my call got more attention than it deserved. Sure it was a little touchy and a lot of upset people but like you said, it was a instinctive thing that happened. No matter what game we're doing, we're ultimately paid to officiate a game, not worry about whether we'll upset people or not.

For me, the key has been experience. Adult rec ball is sometimes hard on the newer officials because newer officials haven't developed the type of judgement that veterans often have, nor have they developed the communication skills to deal with potentially heated situations. Plus, the guys don't really recognize you because you're new, and you're more likely to be challenged. In my opinion, at this point in my career (and I cherry-pick the adult league games that I do), the absolute key to being successful in adult rec league is to simply call the obvious. Every time I work a rec league game now, I work on calling the obvious and the believability of my calls to everyone in the gym. If everybody sees you're getting the obvious stuff and calling only what's obvious, then when a situation arises where you have to call something out of the ordinary, off ball, intentional or whatever, the players will cut you a lot more slack and go along with it, especially if you can add a clear explanation.

I think rec ball has helped me in "real" games immensely in terms of dealing with coaches and players. For me, rec ball has been a great venue to develop communications skills and hone judgement, and working on those things rather than concentrating on "switching gears" is the best approach.

Personally, I hate adult rec league ball. I can't stand 30-40-50+ year old men trying to relive their high school and college days on the court. I hate when they try to bully a young official. I don't like the general attitudes of most "adult" league games. I avoid them if possible, working them only occasionally as a favor to my assigner when he is in a bind, or when I really need the money...

Could someone -- either a mod or the posters themselves -- make these last two posts go away? Please? I know I'm off-topic a lot, but abortion seems a little far afield and not remotely funny.

Chuck E
 

Sorry.

I took it off. I think it's a good analogy and in that sense pertinent- but I agree it invites off-topic response.

Thanks guys. I know it wasn't meant to be offensive, but I appreciate it.

THe reason I ask is because I've had a couple situations that occured during adult leagues/tournaments. One was a real tough backcourt violation call during a championship game in a tournament. THe woman with the ball may have "BARELY" grazed the halfcourt line and it ultimately cost their team the game.
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It did not ultimately "cost their team the game." No doubt there was a missed layup or FT or stupid shot taken that "cost their team the game."