Ever Deal With Fans off-court? Do You Always Ignore On-Court?

[tomegun]

First of all I think that if anyone is going to say anything about me at least it should be funny.

There is an outdoor adult league in Maryland that I used to do. These are the kinds of fans that aren't really for either team, they just want to see highlights. One group of old men called me everything except a child of God. They lovingly referred to me as "baldy" most of the night.

I was doing a DeMatha game and one fan was staring me down during a timeout. The game was being played at American University and for some reason we looked at each other at the same time. He was mouthing something, complaining about the game. A few weeks later I was doing a game at DeMatha - a very small gym especially considering they are a nationally known team which regularly produces several D1 players every year. Anywhoo, we had a timeout and all of a sudden I'm staring at the same guy and at the same time we both bust out laughing - it was like a replay of the same thing. He came into the locker room, yes it was just a room that anyone could come in to, and talked to me for a few minutes.

Years ago, I was doing a game in Vegas and my partner moved the cheerleaders. A little later on, he gave one team a T because one of the cheerleaders called him a name. While I figured out what was going on, someone with a bullhorn in the stands called him an a$$hole. My partner got security to take them out. When the kid left he left the bullhorn with his buddy. As his friend was walking out he used the bullhorn and said, "You are still an a$$hole." He had to go too.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by tomegun

They lovingly referred to me as "baldy" most of the night.

Tell them you're not bald. You just have solar panels on your head to help the environment.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by golfdesigner

I now am trail right in front of coach, he keeps right on yelling about the travel, play goes back down floor my son is now trail opposite coach, he keeps harping on the travel, "how many steps does she get... how many steps" play now goes down floor and I have coach again, this time "stop" sign goes up, he says "oh great she gets five huh, five steps" I stop sign again and tell coach enough, time to move on. He keeps at it, so give him stop again, keeps it up, "whack" first one, maybe a little slow at giving him what he had earned, so now I put up stop and he keeps going, "don't put up your hand to me" stop sign again "don't put up your hand to me" so this time I tell coach you've had one and you're working on the second, "don't put up your hand to me" this time I whack him again, and tell him he's done for the day and needs to leave the gym.

Lah me......

"This time I really, really mean it".......

The idea of giving a warning is to let the coach know that enough is enough. A "stop" sign means STOP. It doesn't mean anything else but STOP. By my count, you had....oh......about five(5) too many warnings in the sequence above. Why would the coach listen to any of your warnings if he knows that you're not going to follow through? Of course, he ignored you.

Warn-----> whack!

[ChrisSportsFan]

Originally Posted by tomegun

First of all I think that if anyone is going to say anything about me at least it should be funny.

There is an outdoor adult league in Maryland that I used to do. These are the kinds of fans that aren't really for either team, they just want to see highlights. One group of old men called me everything except a child of God. They lovingly referred to me as "baldy" most of the night.

I was doing a DeMatha game and one fan was staring me down during a timeout. The game was being played at American University and for some reason we looked at each other at the same time. He was mouthing something, complaining about the game. A few weeks later I was doing a game at DeMatha - a very small gym especially considering they are a nationally known team which regularly produces several D1 players every year. Anywhoo, we had a timeout and all of a sudden I'm staring at the same guy and at the same time we both bust out laughing - it was like a replay of the same thing. He came into the locker room, yes it was just a room that anyone could come in to, and talked to me for a few minutes.

Years ago, I was doing a game in Vegas and my partner moved the cheerleaders. A little later on, he gave one team a T because one of the cheerleaders called him a name. While I figured out what was going on, someone with a bullhorn in the stands called him an a$$hole. My partner got security to take them out. When the kid left he left the bullhorn with his buddy. As his friend was walking out he used the bullhorn and said, "You are still an a$$hole." He had to go too.

This is good stuff and it's gotta be true stories because you can't make that crap up. lol

[ChrisSportsFan]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Lah me......

"This time I really, really mean it".......

The idea of giving a warning is to let the coach know that enough is enough. A "stop" sign means STOP. It doesn't mean anything else but STOP. By my count, you had....oh......about five(5) too many warnings in the sequence above. Why would the coach listen to any of your warnings if he knows that you're not going to follow through? Of course, he ignored you.

Warn-----> whack!

Yup

[ace]

I was working a SMALL (1A) school outside of Houston, between Houston and Japan... (atleast it felt that way)

I kid came down from the top row (about 12) to tell me how bad I was. I said thanks, blew the whistle. Before I could even look down to the door for the police officer, the police officer was behind me putting cuffs on the guy.... WOAH?!

Cop starts hauling him off so I put the ball back in and lets get back going to the game. A few timeouts later the cop comes all across the gym (door is at 1 endo f the court) and he looks mad. He gets in my face because I should have waited for him to clear the gym before putting the ball in place. I said "sir, my job is to keep the game going. I couldn't sit here and let you read him the miranda rights all the way out the gym, because then everyone is watching that, and not the game. If the game gets back going again, people start watching that and all is well."
by now i've made eye contact with the principal and give her the "WTF" look. she comes over and tells the sargent to cool it, and take the night stick out of his butt. I try not to laugh.

They didnt arrest the kid, the officer was just trying to "send a message" he's the new deputy in town and he's making a GREAT first impression....

I love student section heckles though, especially when thy are original.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by ace

I love student section heckles though, especially when thy are original.

I had a very positive experience a few nights ago. I had a girls varsity game between two of the smaller schools in our area. It was a Thursday night game, during the Winter break. I wasn't expecting a large crowd.

Was I wrong. This night was girls recreation league night. All the girls in the local recreation league got in free, and there were scrimmages at the halftimes of both the junior varsity, and the varsity game.

There was also a large contingent of home team student fans, mostly boys, in the crowd. According to the Athletic Director, these fans were displaced from their regular bleacher area by the large crowd of recreation girls, and their parents, so they were seated behind the visitor's bench. Certainly a recipe for disaster. Again, I was wrong.

The first thing that I noted was that student section sang the National Anthem, along with the instrumental recording that was played before the varsity game. I had only observed this once in my 27 years of officiating, and that was at another school when the sound system didn't work. The second thing that I noticed was that these fans spent the entire game cheering for their classmates on the home team, and even though they were seated just a few feet behind the visitor's bench, they never once said anything derogatory to the visiting players. This student section was a class act.

[blindzebra]

I love the big student sections...too bad many schools in my area tend to not have them.

Most of the schools in my area that do have their own "crazies" tend to be in the same region and they always travel. Most have the visitors section behind their bench with the home seated opposite from the home bench. That set-up causes a loud cross-fire from the sections. It also puts the home crazies court side without a buffer. That closeness can be fun on some nights...others not so much.

I had a super ball go flying across the court during a girls varsity game. GM came in asking who did it, I could only tell them the direction. There were about 10-15 kids in the first row pointing at the 10-15 in the 5th row, who of course were pointing back...GM threw them all out.

I am far from the AZ record though. A heated rivalry game had a couple of fights break out during the first half with several fans tossed. Another broke out at the start of the 3rd quarter so the officials pulled everyone off the court and had GM clear the entire gym! They finished the game with both teams, the table and the officials. My 20-30 pales to the 2,500 or so that they tossed.

[MichaelVA2000]

18-U rec-ball. Team A is up by two points with twenty seconds left on the clock when B1 drives through the lane and flattens A1. My partner calls PC and B1 leaves the game with five fouls.

As the ball is being put in play, all hel* breaks loose on Team B's bench. A1's father has come onto the court and has punched B1 and is now fighting with the coach from Team B and fans from both teams are now pouring onto the floor.

My partner declares a forfeit, in favor of Team B and we locked ourselves in the AD office until the police came.

A1's father and three other people were arrested.

[ChuckElias]

Just wanted to say Happy New Year.

I posted this about 5 years ago. This was an on-court problem with a player that continued off-court: Fun, fun, fun!

[26 Year Gap]

Happy New Year, Chuck. Any more Dartmouth games?

[DrFeelGood]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

Just wanted to say Happy New Year.

I posted this about 5 years ago. This was an on-court problem with a player that continued off-court: Fun, fun, fun!

Thanks for the reply Chuck, so what ever happened to #4?

[buckrog64]

I had a 7th or 8th grade girls game, can't recall which...does it matter? Anyway, the coach was riding me some, just a little bit. Then during a dead ball she piped up some more. I said, "Coach, you need to worry more about your team and how they're playing instead of the officiating, trust me." The coached kinda huffed and the crowd snickered a little at my remarks, but I pointed out the fact that we had more fouls called than points scored between the two teams. The second half was a whole different half. They played ball, didn't hammer as much and the scoring picked up.

I know at 7/8 games we don't have as many problem fans as some areas might, the locals know us and know we're going to be fair. Sometimes it takes some convincing of the visitors. One thing I've grown tired of in my time as an official is the fact that a terrible game has 'got to be the fault of the officials' when it's simply being played poorly.

[just another ref]

Originally Posted by buckrog64

......the locals know us.........

This is often the biggest problem of all. Familiarity truly does breed contempt.

"He lives right down the road for their school. You know he's gonna call for them."

"Since he knows our kids, he calls harder against them."


etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

[ChuckElias]

Originally Posted by DrFeelGood

Thanks for the reply Chuck, so what ever happened to #4?

Never found out. Here's the follow-up. Kind of anti-climactic, but probably it's better that way. Brief update