I would have had security toss him out of the gym. I'm at a loss to understand why you put up with this.

I understand the approach, but I still don't agree with it. This guy is in a position of authority, he's not just a regular fan, and he's using that authority to create a hostile environment that could have many negative ramifications on a Jr. high school game. I don't think he can be ignored. Plus he attacked your integrity and threatened you, your partner should have game management dump him, or use JR's approach, but it has to be addressed because it sets the tone for the game.



If you're missing tournaments and this is costing you other games, you really need to talk to your assignor and find out what's going on. It's one thing to be badmouthed, it's another not to be backed up by the assignor to the point where a feud with one coach is hurting other parts of your schedule. I don't know the situation, but if the problem is costing you other assignments, there might be other things at play that you need to know but aren't aware of.

If this was me, I'd have the guy up on Judge Judy's show in no time.:eek:

Only pick battles that you have a chance to win. Around here it would be hard to have one principal kick another principal out of the gym unless he threw a brick or something. At the most they might take him aside and "talk to him to calm him down." This is a little man on a power trip flaunting his authority. If I do tell game management that he should be removed and they don't do it, things would be even worse.

History is full of battles (real and otherwise) that would never have been fought & won if this philosophy was adhered to. (That's my polite way of saying bullsh1t to that.) "Either he goes or we go."
"Well we can't make him leave."
"Then we'll leave."

Seems simple to me.

(yeah yeah I know then the kids suffer...but IMO they've already suffered because you let this jerk treat you like sh1t. At least now they know actions have consequences.)

I think I know what is going on. When the original blowup happened, the guy said he was going to call my assignor. I don't know if he actually did or not, but the coach/principal of the school where the thing happened did call and told the assignor that I did nothing wrong, that the perception of bad calling was in the eyes of the beholders. When I saw the assignor we discussed the incident briefly and he said, "We better just keep you away from those idiots." The problem is one of geography. The area our association covers is about 130 miles long. I live up on the extreme north end of the territory. When we go to games we are paid travel from the hometown of the association, which is roughly in the center, regardless of the actual distance traveled. The rule has always been that games are assigned with the jr. high close to home, and the varsity basically anywhere. One needs to get all the games close to home that one can get for the travel money to balance out, and for it to be easier on everybody involved. Because of this situation, there have been times when I have literally met other officials in the road as we all traveled many extra miles to call ball games when we all could have stayed within 15 minutes of home but for the b*tching of one poor, misguided, individual.

This behavior needs to be reported directly to the state association, since it seems as if your assignor isn't doing anything about it.

Since this guy is from the visiting team, I'd have no problem with you saying that he needs to leave or else that school forfeits. Alternately, with a warning to the coach first, T him up and throw him out if he becomes a problem during the game.

The bigger problem, IMO, is when the person causing problems is with home game admin. When I've had those problems before, I don't fight it on site, I just make a complete report to my assignor when I get home.

Whew!! That would be worth watching...

If you intend to ignore it, if it doesn't bother you, then why do you keep posting about it? :(

And why do you sound so defensive when we tell you how to handle this differently?

I just find it to be a very interesting story. I thought others might also.

I didn't realize that I sounded defensive. I do appreciate the suggestions, but I simply have not heard one that I thought would help. My understanding is that in the state of Louisiana, the LHSAA has nothing to do with jr. high sports. I know that jr. highs can and do use whomever they want as basketball officials. So there would be no one to report this guy to except the superintendent of schools. I inquired here locally about doing exactly that and was told by more than one person who should know, in a nutshell, "Do that if you want to, but nothing will come of it."

Depending on state rules, BOTH schools would have to have an administrator present. I know one league/conference whose rule is that if one team didn't have an administrator present (can be the AD also, unless the AD is the coach), it's a forfeit.

Be careful about asking the "home" principal to kick out the "visiting" principal. You could be opening a Pandora's Box if you do so. I heard of one incident where that happened (and I can't reveal the details because it almost jeopardized an assigning contract), and the state activities association and the state principals/administration association had to step in. I guess what ended up happening was both teams forfeited the game (a double forfeit), the officials were told they could not officiate for either school for a certain amount of time, AND both principals lost their board/committee assignments in the principals' association. If you think the nastiness AFTER the game was bad, from what I heard, the nastiness in the gym when it happened was even worse. The officials ended up having to eject a few players and a couple coaches because they decided what happened off the court was going to spill onto the court. Nothing good comes of it when you ask a principal to remove a visiting administrator. :(

Simple as hell........

If you do want to do something about it, you have 2 options;
1) Quit taking abuse from the principal. The FED case book outlines quite thoroughly the procedure to follow. The principal is a "spectator" and you treat him as such. If you have a problem with him, you get game(home) management to tell him to cut his crap out, If he refuses, have game management put him out of the gym. Stop the game until he leaves. If he refuses to leave, suspend the game and write a report to the league/assignor on it. If no one in the gym identifies themselves as home management, then it's up to the head coach of the home team to assume that role. If he doesn't want to, same thing.....suspend the game and write her up. In this case, because you've had previous problems, alert your assignor as to what you'll be doing if you run into problems.
2) Tell your assignor not to assign you to any more games involving that principal's school, and also refuse any assignments given to you involving that school.

If you don't want to do something about it, then quit complaining about it and just go officiate.

No doubt that advice won't help you either.