Go ahead, shame me....

[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by lmeadski

So shame on me for calling him stripes (was that truly disrespectful?) and getting lit up (true or false)? And, at what point would this community feel I needed to step up to protect my players' best interest and get into the ref's soup (In a side bar, I calmly approached him at the next dead ball, expressed my concern about the lack of calls with rough play, and he offers: I didn't see it, turns and walks away)?

After reading through the thread I'll add my $.02:

These 11 year old games are usually brutal - players, fans & coaches are generally out of control and the officials generally don't have enough experience to know how to handle it. As you've written your story here it sounds like too much was being let go. BUT...as others have said I think there's an entirely different side of this story waiting to be told by the officials. At some point if the game was truly getting too rough you should have just gone & quietly spoken to the other coach about it, and then tournament staff if the coach didn't agree to help calm things down. That option probably had much more potential for success than getting "into the ref's soup", whatever that means.