"Letting Them Play..."

[Texas Aggie]

Kids were swinging elbows, pushing, traveling, just a very out of control situation which led to a few kids getting hurt and the crowd was absolutely out of control.

I can assure you that this would have happened regardless of what the officials called. You just would have been there longer and shot more free throws. I've never seen a jr. high team respond to what the officials are calling, other than with replaced players who usually continue what's happening.

I've had jr. high games with more than 40 fouls called and one with as few as 4 fouls called. Nobody's injury has ever been healed by the whistle blowing, and in my experience, the roughest games are the ones with the most foul calls. One thing rarely has anything to do with the other. But sometimes you have to keep blowing regardless; other times, there's no reason to blow.

As far as the crowd getting out of control, yelling is not out of control. Were they throwing stuff? Coming on to the court? If so, then yes, they were out of control and that should have been dealt with. Absent that, there wasn't a crowd problem.