Knock It Off!!!

[S. Hoover]

I was gettig ready to call a boys jv game and i came a little early to watch a boys jr.high game. the ref calling the ref calling the jr.high game is a gret official. he does many varsity games, and i believe was even called up to the college level. Now these two teams are real big rivals in football and that rivalry carries over to all sports. these two teams hate each other! As the visiting teams cheerleaders came onto the floor before the game, the home fans starting booing and really giving it to them. this ref turned to the fans and gave them a real stern look, which i thought was called for. as they were administering a free throw to the away team, of course the homme team is going to yell to distract the away team. we ll this ref thhen put his hand out as to tell them to stop, when they didn't he again gave his stern look. at half time he talked to the game manager, then the gm had a talk with all those fans. i know there's hardly any sportsmanship any more but do you think this ref was out of line? i'd like to see what you think. thanks. peace

s.hoover

[barney]

Sportsmanship is definitally lacking at many of the games now days, as for how to handle it ?? It can be touchy, by far the best thing to do is to notify the game management of the problem and let them deal with it.
I beleive that if an official acknowledges the disrespect of the fans by giving them dirty looks or by making some sort of hand gesture or such as to try to get them to stop their rude behavior, just magnifys the situation that much more.
Since if these people already have no respect for the game and the players, they certainly are not going to give any respect to an official who's making faces at them, if anything they'll be worse, since now they know that they can get a response out of you.

I think it's best to ignore the crowd, and if you think they are out of hand notify the management, the less attention we bring to ourselves the better in these situations.

[ref39]

If you, as an official feel that the fans are disrespecting any team members or cheerleaders, you as the official have one duty and one duty alone. Inform the Game Management person immediately. You should never approached any of the fans in that manner. You are to ref the game, any problem accurring in the stands, you let the management handle that situation.

[This message has been edited by ref39 (edited January 29, 2000).]