As an official, do you think that you or one of your partners can swing the momentum of a game by what they call?

Here is the situtation: (this is a rec. league game)
During the 4th quarter, parents of one team feel that their team has been on the short end of the stick for foul calls (so what else is new). The players (11-12 girls) of that team start to feed off of the fans reactions to "no-calls". One girl receives a technical for unsportsman-like behavior. From that point on, my partner starts to call fouls that we haven't called all game for the team that is complaining. This team also happened to be behind bt six points, which is monumental for a 11-12 year old girls game. The "complaining" team still ended up losing by 2, but you could definitely see the change in the game.

As an experienced official, what would you do?

First of all, you said that you started to call <b> fouls </b> that you hadn't called all game. I think you meant to say that you started calling fouls for contact that you had previously been ruling as inadventant. Fouls are fouls and they can't be ignored so you should be calling <b> fouls </b> the whole game.

If your partner started calling contact as fouls that had been ignored prior in the game, <b> you </b> have two choices.
1) Continue to call the game the same way.
2) Adjust your game to call tighter to match your partner. Regardless, be fair to both teams. In other words, call it tighter on team A and team B if you choose to go that route.

Is it possible that your partner felt that he/she continued to be consistent and that it was just coincidence that more contact started happening in front of him/her after the T? I see nothing wrong with officials tightening up a game that is starting to get out of control (sounds like your game was headed that way?), but I'd like to see both officials talk about that before it happens.

Z

Z

I agree that a foul is a foul the entire game. You are correct that the statement should have been incidental contact was now being called a foul by my partner. I don't have a problem when all officials involved come together and decide that the game needs to be managed better by calling the game tighter, etc.

It is possible that more contact was occuring in my partner's area. In no way did I ever get the sense that the game was getting out of control. Even with the technical foul.

Here is a question for you, how can you justify calling the game differently in the last three minutes, then in the previous twenty five minutes?(seven minute quarters)?

I chose your first option - to call the same game that I called from the beginning.

Thank you for your advice - I always learn something from this board.

<i>how can you justify calling the game differently in the last three minutes, then in the previous twenty five minutes?(seven minute quarters)? </i>

Good question..and I don't have a real good answer. I hope that my partner and I would have realized long before that point that it needed to be tightened. The more I ref, the more that I find that getting together at the end of each quarter w/ my partner(s) is beneficial. We discuss if we both feel like the game is going well or if there is something we need to adjust.

The only time I could justify calling the last three minutes differently is in a blow-out, when one team is starting to committ frustration fouls. Then my whistle will get <b> real </b> quick.

IMHO, the mere fact that you are thinking about this type of stuff in your second year is a real good sign. :)

Z

I've learned that when the game is getting ugly, it is because my partner and I are not calling enough fouls. Now when I sense the game is getting uglier and uglier, I automatically start calling it a little tighter. I also talk to my partner after every quarter. I either ask him/her is there's anything we need to talk about or to work on.

Only Time I'll Change My Style
 

The only time that I'll consciously change my level of foul calling is after a near-fight or after I've warned players of rough play. After that, it's gonna be a foul much quicker than normal. After the kids settle down and play basketball (rather than fight), I'll loosen up and revert to a "normal" level of foul calling. Some may call this variable officiating, but I call it preventive officiating.

Twice this year I have sensed a momentum swing in games that i believe were as a result of fouls that I have called. Both times they were on technical fouls. In the first instance I called a foul on player B1. A was in the double bonus. When I went to report the foul the head coach for B said, "you can call that sh*t in the parking lot" I immediately T'd him. A1 made all 4 free throws and A got the ball out the division line. A then scored on that possession, leading to a 6 pt. swing. Prior to that, team B was winning the game handily. The T seemed to take the wind out of B's sails and they ended up losing by 5. Other than the T, my partner and I didn't call it any differently from start to finish.

The second instance was last Saturday in a girl's varsity game. Team B got a T at the start of the 4th quarter for having only 4 players return to the court. It wasn't any big deal and the coach for B did not complain at all. The T somehow fired team A up in the 4th quarter. Prior to that, team A was not playing well and it looked if they were going to lose. In that game also, I feel that my partner and I called the game consistently from start to finish.

I do not like to change the way I officiate in a game but there are times when it's necessary. If things get heated between opposing players, then I will tighten up the game considerably but it will go both ways. If I do this, I always try to talk with my partner first.

I sense from your language that you didn't lose a lot of sleep over this, but I just want to clarify that YOU REFS did not swing this game. The coach who made the remark did. When my daughter was playing, we were startled to see how much effect the coach's attitude had on the girls. We finally talked to the caoch about it, and told him if he didn't control himself a little better, our daughter would no longer play for him. (Fortunately for us, she was clearly the best player on the team, and usually scored 15 to 20 points per game -- at 8th grade level). He had to get himself under control. It was pathetic to hear his own daughter say, "Daddy, don't say that so loud -- you want Jessica to play on Friday, don't you?" As he quit yelling at the refs, he coached more, and the girls all did better and better. I still see this today, when a coach gets a T, his/her team either gets into the groove and zooms ahead, or they simply collapse. But it is the coach's choice, not the Ref's.