Well it finally happened....

[Bearfanmike20]

I have heard the horror stories of working with that guy who is just there for the money. I just got that today.

Traveling team. Sixth grade. Game time is 430pm. 430 comes... no partner. Now, I give him the benefit of the doubt because it is a huge snow storm. 3 min into the first quarter he arrives. He wreaks of cigarettes. Now.. if you smoke fine, but I think maybe you should show up to a sixth grade game not smelling like an ashtray.

He is dressed in dress shoes.. yes.. dockers I think.

So.. he starts as lead. First call he has to make. Blows his whistle.. and calls the number and then just stands there. I go down to lead to administer FT, and he just shakes his head and goes up to trail. By the way.. did I mention he didn't report the foul till I looked at him.

Every call made till halftime. Little of no mechanics oh his part. Then halftime comes and he sais.. "on this level I dont like to call much so we can get the game over... you know.. for the kids. They just want to play."

After the game my wife (who went with me) sais before I can say anything to her.. "He was sooooooo bad."

Uhg.... what a horrible game. I was doing better by myself. I called my assignor and left him a message, but I have to do another game with this guy.

[Adam]

These are the games you just do three things on.
Get in. Get done. Get out.

Call your game, work on your mechanics or personal points of emphasis, force the switches if you can.

[Nevadaref]

I used to have a very negative opinion of "these" officials.
I used to feel embarrassed to take the court with these folks. I thought that it made me look bad. I've since realized that I should see it as a challenge and try to shine.
Now I have come to simply feel sorry for such officials. Obviously these are people with serious personal problems. Perhaps this is how he puts food on his table or clothes on his back. If so, my heart goes out to him. At least he is doing some small thing to earn his money legally, get some physical exercise which may positively contribute to his health, and perhaps he may even derive some pleasure from this activity.

I just smile at these folks, go out and work my normal game, and don't worry about anything that they do. When the game is over, I don't offer any comments. I just wish my partner a good evening with a smile and go on my way.

[MCJB Ump]

Originally Posted by Bearfanmike20

He wreaks of cigarettes. Now.. if you smoke fine, but I think maybe you should show up to a sixth grade game not smelling like an ashtray.

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

At least he is doing some small thing to earn his money legally, get some physical exercise which may positively contribute to his health, and perhaps he may even derive some pleasure from this activity.

Him wheezing up and down the court ought to offset that cancerstick habit!!

[caliref]

Just call your area. I have had situations like this and if you are calling a good game, hopefully your partner will start calling at the same level that you are calling. If they are not, then try and protect them the best you can and just get done with the game. Eventually you will move up to the point where you will not be working with guys like this.

[tomegun]

Please tell me when I will not be working with guys like this? To some degree, guys like this exist at almost all levels.

[Bearfanmike20]

He reminded me of a child... who was being forced to do something he didn't want to do. Dont get me wrong.. he knew how to call the game. You can tell he knew the rules. The calls he did make were not wrong.. but he wouldn't signal anything. Wouldnt put his hand up to stop the clock. Nothing. The most lazy display of reffing I have ever seen.

[kbilla]

Originally Posted by Bearfanmike20

I have heard the horror stories of working with that guy who is just there for the money. I just got that today.

Traveling team. Sixth grade. Game time is 430pm. 430 comes... no partner. Now, I give him the benefit of the doubt because it is a huge snow storm. 3 min into the first quarter he arrives. He wreaks of cigarettes. Now.. if you smoke fine, but I think maybe you should show up to a sixth grade game not smelling like an ashtray.

He is dressed in dress shoes.. yes.. dockers I think.

So.. he starts as lead. First call he has to make. Blows his whistle.. and calls the number and then just stands there. I go down to lead to administer FT, and he just shakes his head and goes up to trail. By the way.. did I mention he didn't report the foul till I looked at him.

Every call made till halftime. Little of no mechanics oh his part. Then halftime comes and he sais.. "on this level I dont like to call much so we can get the game over... you know.. for the kids. They just want to play."

After the game my wife (who went with me) sais before I can say anything to her.. "He was sooooooo bad."

Uhg.... what a horrible game. I was doing better by myself. I called my assignor and left him a message, but I have to do another game with this guy.

Who was it Mike?

[Chess Ref]

Originally Posted by tomegun

Please tell me when I will not be working with guys like this? To some degree, guys like this exist at almost all levels.

So I now am starting to get a few Varsity games. I had my 2nd one last Friday. Small Christian schools. Packed gym, granted a small gym but packed nonetheless. Partner gets there 5 minutes after scheduled tip-off. I did everything except drive the car for him to get him there.

So no pre-game. Decent enough ref, in position,making calls. We are good to go. A couple of seconds before half he has a whistle, and we have the end of period horn go off. Both coaches want to know what the call is. Partner comes over to me and says he should have held his whistle but he had a foul. I say lets line them up and shoot them. He didn't want to. He just wanted the half over. I didn't know what he expected me to do.

So I was stuck with helping bail out my partner or standing there looking stupid. I finally told him to say he had an inadvertant whistle. Meanwhile both coaches are still wanting a call. So to save time we took longer cleaning up the mess then shooting 2 free throws would have taken.

Shrug....

[rainmaker]

Originally Posted by Bearfanmike20

He reminded me of a child... who was being forced to do something he didn't want to do. Dont get me wrong.. he knew how to call the game. You can tell he knew the rules. The calls he did make were not wrong.. but he wouldn't signal anything. Wouldnt put his hand up to stop the clock. Nothing. The most lazy display of reffing I have ever seen.

These kinds of folks are frustrating, but be thankful that he knew the rules and made good calls. I'll put up with a lot if the partner is at least not selling out The Game.

We had a guy around here who was like that, a darn good ref, but mechanics like no one you've ever seen. If the game got boring, he'd just leave the floor to go out to the concession stand and get a snack. Literally. But when he decided to get serious and be a real ref, move up, make it a career, he started getting college games his second year, and was a credit to everyone. I hated working with him at first, but after I realized that he at least knew the rules and the A/D stuff, I learned to adjust, and really enjoyed him. It was fun to tell "Jeff" stories. Unfortunately, he had a heart attack and died in his second year of "real" ball. No one was glad to have him gone, because we all liked him.

[grunewar]

First game I ever had (non-rec) - small, private school, GJV. Had "one of them". Guess he was warned by the Assignor it's my first game, so he's watching me closely and giving me pointers....and I'm watching him.

He proceeds to tell me all the things I need to work on (and he was right). I proceeded to look at him - overwight, facial hair, belted pants, running backwards or turning and jogging and not watching the floor, leaning on the wall at the end of the gym, poor hand and arm signals, joking with coaches, etc. Heck he told me NOT to call alot as we need to "get in and get out." Certainly dissappointing for a first timer.

But hey, I even learned something from that ref! And, as GEN Colin Powell once said, "Even Saddam Hussein has value, he can always be used as a poor example."