Thicker skin

[Vinski]

I’m sure that most of you vets have been through worse, and will probably nod your heads and say, “Been there, done that. No big deal”. But I gotta tell ya, what an evening (for a rookie anyway)! Let me preface this with a little history. I just rapped up my first season. I had been reffing 5th – 8th grade boys and girls mostly for the local YMCA. Next year on to sub-varsity. Can’t wait…At least that is how I used to think before this evening. I’ve done about 25 games and most went pretty well. Only had to hush a coach with a warning once. Had to T a kid for an unsporting. Had a couple noisy parents. But other than that, mostly pretty good. Until tonight…
Two rival junior highs were going at it and I new it could be a rough one because I had reffed both before but not playing against one another. One was very aggressive and the other was kind of a rough team. Right off the bat a couple of fouls on team A. The coach is in my face about B’s guys pushing. I give him the hand and tell him to back off with an official warning. Then A1 picks up another foul and grows a visual display of displeasure regarding my call. I give the hand and warning to him. This was the last I heard from team A the rest of the game. Now it’s team B’s turn. I catch B1 slapping hands up high defending a shot, so I blow the whistle. He response with a “What the f.***”. Bam, I give the T. Now, this started with a shooting foul so we clear the lane and let the shooter for team A shoot two. It so happens that this is A coach’s choice for the T shots as well, so he fires up a third and the B coach goes nuts! He had forgotten that it was a shooting foul and thinks that we are giving him a 3 shot technical. I try to get a word in to explain, but he goes on. So, Bam, T number 2. This kid from team A got to shoot 6 free throws in a row before we got things going again. I told coach B to sit and be quite or he is gone. That quieted things down some but I kept getting a bunch of chirping and whining about the other team not getting called and that I was picking on theirs. But B was bent on playing sloppy, rough basket ball.
Now, get this…Not a peep out of the parents the whole game.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. Just not how I want the season to end. However, I do feel my skin getting thicker.