The varsity game I had Saturday night involved a team that our officials association usually services and a team that came in from out of state. I work in TN, and the team that came in was from Kentucky. Our state offices have given us some mandates for points of emphasis that we have been trying to enforce throughout the season. The first thing that caused problems was that TN has chosen to keep the 6' coaches box, but Kentucky uses the new one. The coaches couldn't figure out why they couldn't roam the sideline that night. Apparently my partner and I called a much tighter game than what they were used to as well. Apparently they have been allowed to ride a defensive post player up the lane or across the lane. Unfortunately for them they were called for several fouls. The girls from KY ended up losing by 20 points because they refused to come out of the zone that kept giving up the air assault of three pointers, and the KY boys ended up winning in the last few seconds. I guess my question is, does anyone else seem to find this a problem when they encounter teams from different areas, and to the coaches who read this post, there is something to be said about not only scouting a team, but to also scout and find out how referees call in an area that you are travelling to.

I ref both basketball and lacrosse and have officiated many games in which the visiting team came from out of state or from a different area of the state. My experience is that the visiting team always thinks the game is called tighter, regardless of where it's from. Only once in 10 years has a coach or fan from the visiting team said to me that we did a better job than their local officials. I have no idea why, but I just think that being unfamiliar with EVERYTHING makes a visiting team feel that everything is against them.

I would treat such comments the same way you treat the comments of fans in your own area. Ignore them.

Chuck

"Huh? Did you say something Chuck?" :D

Fans!! Ignore the fans!!!

I had a funny exchange with a coach last weekend. I was doing a Jr Hi tourney and this team was 7th grade girls. I thought I knew from their jerseys that they were local (Portland, Oregon). I called PC on one of their girls, and as I was headed back down the floor, the coach says, "How can you call that offensive? Her feet weren't planted" I said, "She had legal guarding position, so her feet dont need to be planted." He said, "Oh, is that an Oregon rule? we don't play by Oregon rules." I said (puzzled), "Where are you from?" He answered, "Portland." I went back to the game.

Not really.
 

But I have not had any teams from a place like Kentucky. Most of the teams that I have had have been from the same two states that play teams in Illinois all the time and sometimes several times a year. Iowa and Missouri. These states (at least in my experience) are used to playing Illinois teams, so I have never even heard of any major problems.

Peace

Is Portland in Oregon? I thought it was a state of its own. I live in Oregon and we do games with Washington teams that come over in the pre-season. I always go over in the captain's conference with the visitors about the rule differences. The only one that I recall is that in the girls game the Washington rules don't have an over and back rule. I'm not sure if that's still true. It's been a while since I did an interstate game.

The differences now in a girl's game(in Washington) and NFHS book are:

1. shot clock
2. no 10 seconds backcourt
3. no 5 seconds closely guarded while dribbling.

The mid-court division line is now used.

Being close to the Wisconsin-Illinois border, I have had a few games where teams from Illinois come to Wisconsin to play. We always talk in our pregame about rule differences that might apply. Our first thought is any adaptations that Wisconsin uses, different from NFHS. Then we look at any possible rules that Illinois uses that Wisconsin does not use. We always cover all of these points in the captains/coaches pregame conference. We ask the coaches if they know of any rule differences that we have not discussed. If during the game, a situation happens where a rule has to be applied that we did not cover, we obviously have to use the local rule. The best we can do at that point is explain to the coach, and go on with the game.

Wisconsin vs. Michigan
 

Had a Wisconsin team come the the U.P., and before the game, WI Coach came to me and said, I know you guys in Michigan call a rougher game, but please don't let anyone get hurt.
I told him that I don't know about that, but you'll get the same game for all four quarters and (<i>here, I lied a might</i>)I hear you are a coach that can get his players to adjust to what the refs are calling.
...Not a peep all night. I have no idea on how our game compared to his base line.
The Michigan Coach was talking to us most of the game.
mick

I think ChuckElias is right on the money. Call your own game.

I had a game earlier this year with a team from Louisiana. After the second five second call, the coach yells at his players, "It is a Texas six feet, not a Louisiana."

Does Louisiana use those damn metric feeble rules?

Sometimes you wonder when you see a bus saying Caddo Parish Schools on it.