Whistle upon taking the court pregame
 

I had an official tell me that when you and your partner take the floor, you are supposed to blow your whistle. I was told it is in the officials manual, but have not been able to locate it. Is this standard practice?

Not where I work games.

Are you officiating games in a parade?:D

I thought it sounded pretty odd. I really do not want to bring any attention to myself when I walk on the floor. But since he mentioned it was in the book, I thought I would ask. I am still looking, but it wasnt under pregame duties.....

No, it's not standard, nor is it in the manual.

It is done in some areas to tell the teams to stop dunking.

You're new (iirc) to officiating. Go watch some games and see if the other varsity officials do this. Follow their lead.

It's fairly common in the DFW area. I was told that we do it to help prevent the pregame T for dunking the ball.

With all due respect, that's one of the oddest things I've read here.

Another great method to prevent this is for the coaches to teach their kids not to dunk during warmups.

Next time someone pulls something like this right out of their arse, ask THEM to show it to you in the book. When they conveniently tell you that they don't have their books with them, pull your books out and hand them to the guy...that's what Bhuck Elics would do.

Almost sounds like a joke. Which got me to thinking, has anyone ever been the recipient or masterminded a joke on some other official. Such as baby powder in the whistle, etc....

An even better method is to T the coach once and put the seatbelt on him....last time anyone on his team dunks in pregame...

Sorry, T the KID once..

That's okay. The coach still gets a seat belt. :D

Yeah, it's done here in Houston also. The intent is to make the players aware the officials are entering the visual confines of the court, so if they are dunking they will stop. And the boys are even worse.:D

There is a ref in our area who I got my first games from years back, and I had him as my partner my fourth or fifth date and was really intimidated.

We had a wild game in a wild gym at a wild school and during a timeout he came over to me and stood directly in front of me poking my chest reminding me of a mechanic or something. We come out of the time out, he inbounds the ball as I go to grab my whistle.........................gawn. He is soiling himself laughing so hard. pretty funny and he's good at it too.

Maybe it's a Texas thing. Don't mess with Texas.

You're enjoying this, aintchya?

Why whatever do you mean???? :D

Best one I ever pulled off was telling the two HS girls at the table that my partner (2-person) was severely dyslexic and warning them that he would say a number like "53" but show the number "35" with his hands, so they needed to really concentrate on what he was saying and really encourage him when he got it all correct...then stood back and watched them lean way over the table to stare at him, and give him big smiles, thumbs-up, and even clap for him a few times as he reported fouls...at halftime when he brought it up, I played all innocent and told him I hadn't noticed...after the game, when he was saying "What the hell was that all about?", I finally broke down and told him...he got a pretty good laugh out of it. Funny though, I've never been the R with him since then. Hmmmm...

The story I heard on this, is that several years back here in Texas, a crew had the door open and was leaving the dressing room. They were nowhere near the visual confines, noone could see them, no clue they were around, but they could see the court.

Well, the whacked a kid for dunking, and of course it raised a big stink. So, they came out with this whistle thing heralding the arrival of the officials on the floor. I hate it, because it draws every eye in the gym to you as you walk out onto the floor.

CLH

When I worked one of my first HS games (freshman b/g d/h), my partner was a grizzled old veteran that told me he always blew his whistle right before entering the gym for warmups, and that I should learn to do the same. He did this to warn the teams that the officials were coming, and then they wouldn't dunk during warmups and you would never start the game with T's.:p

Everytime we enter where I work, they play some crazy music and fireworks go off, so we have no need to blow the whistle.

Some jazzed up version of Three Blind Mice?

You guys crack me up. Thanks for the input.

When I take the floor, I normally do a 360 two-hand slam with the game ball at the home team's basket. Just to let them know I'm there. :cool:

That's only because you're new here. This will pale by comparison to some of the stuff you're likely to read about during the season!

Just do a search of Padgett's posts. You'll find about 500 odder things than that.

You trying to scare fullor off, Scrappy?

A chorus of angels sings when I walk in.

I was working a middle school tournament in Beaverton and we had teams from all up and down the west coast, including British Columbia. Before one of their games, I told the scorer (a volunteer mom) that since we had a team from Canada we were playing international rules and she had to keep score in metric. She asked what that meant. I told her that every time a team scored a point, she had to credit them with 1.47 points. I said, "they gave you a calculator, didn't they?" She froze, then said, "I'd better get my husband." My partner was cracking up and I told her I was just joking. She said, "I'd better get him anyway."

Probably wise on her part.

It is common practice in the Houston area to do this. However I and the other officials who passed this information along probably mis-referenced that this was in the officials manual.

It is common practice right frank? because every game I've worked in the last several years, the R's have hit the whistle just enough to let the boys know we were there, stop the dunking.

Right now if a Canadian scored a field goal, they earn 2.07 points. :p

I can't wait for Black Friday!

Never heard of it before, let alone seen it. I certainly don't support this mechanic.

Precisely. Why are we taking preventative officiating to the level of telling people that we're "coming onto the court now"?

I thought I was the only one. :)

No malice intended. I had never seen it done so I wanted to be sure it was correct and I could not find it in the book. We are taught to listen to experienced officials and then followup with rules reference. If that is what our chapter has asked us to do; that is what we will do. Apparently Dallas also follows this recommendation. Since it is my first year, I dont think this will be much of a problem in the games I will be calling.... except for that female 6-4 Soph from Nimitz....:rolleyes: but I am not calling their games:(

Traffic Cop?????

Catching up on some reading. Thanks for the laugh... I think I may try this one.

I’ve heard that they play the Darth Vader theme when Jurassic enters the court.:D

Look. I even found his picture. Fancy whistle he has there.

http://www.maniacworld.com/darth-vad...t-the-mask.jpg

Bob:

Why would the officials in those areas want to advertise the fact they are coming onto the court so that the players can stop dunking? Nothing is more fun than to walk onto the court just as a player dunks that ball and to see his face when he sees you and he knows that you have caught him dunking and that he is going to get whacked. Sounding one's whistle takes on of the few and small pleasures out of officiating the game.

MTD, Sr.

Splute,
You officiate in Irving?

No, I am in the Houston area. But it sounds like we may use the same or similar mechanics as Dallas.

I'm going to try this but as an example, I'll use the number 11. :p

I really think it may be a Texas thing, as they do it in Austin.

Then again, when I played high school basketball (96-00) the officials did it then too. (and yes, I went to a Texas high school.)

Mark was joking.

Mark, have you been taking Padgett's meds?

Understandable, it was very dry humor.

Very dry.

More dry than humorous. ;)

As a coach, I get on the PA microphone and clear my throat right before the jumpball to notify the officials that the game is about to start and that I will be yelling at them for all the fabricated fouls and travels they call on my team and all obvious fouls and travels they do not call against the other team. It's not in the book, I just do it as a courtesy to the officials to notify them that I am ready to go.

And as I discovered last night, the home crowd takes up where you left off. :) You can just feel the love

I called Nimitz last night...it won't be a problem. They got the arse handed to them by Haltom (25-0 run to start the game)...lead was 35 most of the night. Haltom won by 36.

My favorite has been RFK stadium this past season. They would play the Law & Order theme song when the umpiring crew came out onto the field.

Splute was referring to the Nimitz Girls Basketball team in Houston who has a 6'5" player that can dunk.

Ahh...different Nimitz...that explains a lot. :o

________________________

Ain't happening in Central or Southern Illinois.

I've heard of this practice in TX.

Last year a team from TX attended the Christmas tournament of one of our local school's. As the officials were walking under the basket at one end and taking the floor a TX kid did a two-hand slam. He got Td. The coach told the crew that in TX the officials blow the whistle when taking the floor down there for this very reason. Apparently dunk season is open until that whistle sounds. As a courtesy our officials gave them a whistle prior to each of their remaining tournament games. It brought a smile.

Dunk season, Wabbit season, Dunk season, ...:D

I will try again,
Odd Duck,
Do you officiate in Irving?

The coaches tell their kids, "the refs won't let us dunk" and so that takes them off the hook.

Its been done for years in Texas, not just in the DFW area. Mostly boys games but our R did it the other night for a girls game. I only do it as an R for 1) a boys game and 2) in an arena where they can't immediately see we are there. Its neither right nor wrong, just a courtesy to the players, in my view.

Having the R sounds his whistle is the stupidist and most idiotic thing I have ever heard of, not to mentioin it is not sanctioned in the NFHS Officials Manual. The players and coaches know that they are not to dunk a dead ball. If they are stupid enough to dunk a dead ball and be caught by the officials too bad. I don't plan on moving to Texas, but if I did, no partner of mine would be sounding his whistle as we entered the court. I would take his whistle from him and would not give it to him until just before the start of the game. This mechanic is just a lot of nonsense because some officials are afraid to do their job and more importantly, too many coaches will not do their job.

And no I don't look for players dunking the ball. I have called exactly three pre-game dunking technical fouls in 38 years of officiating high school basketball. The first two were during jr. varsity games when the officials had to be on the court thiry (30) minutes (that's right 30 min for you youngins out there) and a varsity game about ten (10) years ago. Each time the player was dunking the ball as we walked onto the court. The look on their faces was the look of a deer getting caught in the glare of a car's headlights. In the two JV games, the head coach of the offending team was standing under the basket while his team was doing its pre-game layups, and was watching his players dunking the ball. The varsity game was better, the assistant coaches were on the court watching the players warm up while the head coach was still in the locker room because he didn't like to come out onto the court until just before the starters were announced. All of his assistants were afraid to go tell him about his indirect technical foul and that he had lost the coaching box for the entire game before it had even started.

MTD, Sr.

Wow ..5 pages to an item that has its detractors and supporters. The NF officials manual is not gospel. Many states have their own rules for their officials to follow. In Texas, for example, the approved coaching box is 6 feet long, we don't do long switches on fouls in the backcourt, and also Texas decided to keep the Time out positions at the top of the key, and the low block, for 30 and 60 second time outs, respectively.

So, if this is a bunch of renegade Texans, I guess I'm a renegade...but I'll still get Varsity assignments doing what out State association tells us to do.

True... and to get those assignments one must be a certified TASO official... and to be a TASO official one must call per the exceptions lists as outlined by TASO. I do not mind the exceptions, nor will I mind blowing my whistle upon entering the court if that is protocol. I am surprised this thread has received so much attention... although some of the jokes were pretty good.:D Just dont group us with Kansas....:eek: Just kidding

Exactly.

You do not HAVE to blow your whistle when you come out onto the floor. I was in a game last year where we had been standing on the court for at least 5 minutes and were obviously visible to ALL players, coaches, fans, etc. and a kid went up and monster dunked it. Brain fart I guess??? We assessed the technical.

If you blow the whistle it is a courtesy. In Texas it is common practice for high school games (boys) and for JuCo. For NCAA (any division) it is not necessary because the rule is no dunking under the 30 min period preceding the game.

Now, if we can only get officials to stop doing the "White this way, black this way." thing right before the jump ball :)

Threadjack here...

Anyone know WHY this was decided on? The new NFHS mechanic makes a LOT more sense.

And now the R can designate who tosses. :D

I admit I don't have the mechanics manual, but isn't something like that in there?

I realize that I am a bit late to this one, but I have a joke that I played on a fellow official that you might like.

I was working a state tournament and had met some really good guys there and we became fast friends. We were up late every night and watched each and every game there. I was working the girls state championship game before the boys game. Before the game started, I told some of our fellow officials of my idea.

We needed to find the local constable and get him in on the plan.

Anyway, what I did was tell the police officer after the 1st quarter of my game to go up to this official and tell him that he was going to have to leave the gym until after the girls game was over because the officials on the floor were distracted by his presence at the game. At the end of the quarter while we were waiting for play to resume, my partner and I are doing the best that we can to keep our laughter inside as we watch the interaction between the police and our new buddy. The look on his face was priceless as he was asked to leave. The police officer took it a step further and had started to escort him out of his seat and down the stairs. He got halfway down when he looked at me and I winked. He laughed pretty hard when he realized what was up.

Just took a quick look......no mention of that anymore. It just says that the R is supposed to notify both captains that play is about to begin, and then is to blow his/her whistle before he/she tosses.

Maybe not a bad idea though for players below the varsity level. And for partners with a short attention span.

I'm confused - isn't this the NFHS mechanic? I'm looking at it right here in my officials' manual...unless we're talking 2-man?

We're talking 2-man.

Yawn.

Yeah, apparently he was taking JR's meds that morning. Made him grumpy.

Well, seeing I having given you my opinion yet, I'll give it to you now.

The practice of blowing your whistle before entering a gym is patently ridiculous, just like Mark said. It's just another excuse for (a) officials with no balls to avoid having to call a righteous T, and (2) coaches and players to circumvent and ignore a rule that's been in place forever.

It's just dumb to play little kid's games like this. The intent of the rule was never to put any kind of onus on the officials. The rule was made to <b>stop</b> dunking in the warmup. The onus for doing so was placed directly on all of the players and their head coaches. All this nonsense is doing is just saying "hey, dunk all you want. The officials are gonna warn you when to stop anyway." If Texas feels that there's nothing the matter with pre-game dunking, then they should just legalize it.

Stoopid monkeys.

That ain't being grumpy either btw. That's jmo.

There's a difference?

JR:

I couldn't have said it better.

MTD, Sr.


P.S. The check with payment for your support in this matter is in the mail.

Apparently they've both been heavily self-medicating with them.

Pot. . . Kettle.

Just sayin'. :)

Yup, a "stoopid monkey" would have been appropriate for me also. It would have been received with my usual grace and restraint.