QF1Y: Leather Lunged fan is right! ... and we let it go.
 

How about this one.

Boys JV game, Team B parent is loud from the tip about this and that. Questioning calls, etc. Not a big problem at all, just very 'present'.

Just prior to half time, there is a held ball situation with 1.2 seconds left. Ball goes to Team A, they make a try... half time.

Partner goes to the table, and has the arrow switched... we head to our sanctuary... all is good.

We come out, ready to administer throw-in at the division line. We both (and the table) have it going... to Team A!

Team A parent is on it and vocal and loud, but players are in position, my partner (administering throw in) looks up upon hearing, but moves confidently. I knew immediately that the fan was right, but deferred how we would handle this to my R.

Ball inbounded, a few seconds later ball is out-of-bounds. I caucus with partner and say, "hey I think we got that wrong". Too late, not correctable. Partner says he was confident at the time, because he had definitely switched the arrow, and on we play. ps--turns out table had NOT changed the arrow for held ball with 1.2 seconds. I guess that I had made the same mistake at that point - not switching my possession marker.

Thinking back, if a player or coach had raised the point, I would totally have been more assertive about stopping play and getting it right. I guess I was reluctant to because it was from the stands.

I guess I'm looking for that veteran flavor here about responding to information from the stands. Slippery slope? Find help wherever you can find it? What do you folks have for me here?

Thanks.

1) Get in the habit of keeping it in your head.

2) Visually confirm that the table changes it after every held ball.

3) Compare the arrow to the book.

And I'll add

4) If you think the crew is about to screw something up do not defer to anyone. Stop the game & make sure the crew gets it right.

btw... even though they are usually wrong, biased and annoying it's not a bad idea to listen to what's coming out of the seats, as your example shows. You don't have to act on most of it and never respond to any of it directly but sometimes it's worthwhile.

Yep, better to look a little silly by holding up play for a chat BEFORE a major gaff is committed than to allow it to happen and then you look a lot silly.

With 3 of these threads active right now, I have to show my stupidity and ask what "QF1Y" means. "Question For. . . "?

Geeze, EVERYONE knows it means question from 1st year.

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/~andrew/funny/noob.jpg

I believe in this case whether you are the R or U, if you have definate knowledge that you're about to give the ball to the wrong team, you need to stop the game and share that information with your partner. I think sometimes we officials get to hung up on "The R must be right... so I'll defer" but that's not what we are out there to do. My assigner says "Do what is best for the game..." and in this case, above is what I would of done.

In our games we have one scorebook at the table and before we leave the court, we confirm who'll have the arrow to start the half and we have the scorer write down the color of the team whose getting it to start the half right on the top of the score sheet.

My 2 cents...

I know it's not the preferred thing to do, but I keep a Chap-stik in my pocket and change it for possession. It works. It's unobtrusive and doesn't weigh hardly anything at all.

I used to use a Hickory Farms beefstick, but I noticed that female coaches would see it and drool, so I stopped. :rolleyes:

And the chap-stick is more in line with reality.

I don't think it was drooling as much as retching.

Well, I guess they do now, since I noticed that you asked the same thing in another thread.

And that is just a horrible picture. Wow.

:p

Right.
 

But, like I said, if the info came from the table, a player, or the coach I would have acted. The info was coming from our leather lunged fan. My R heard him, looked up at him and ignored him. My reluctance wasn't with stopping before we erred, but rather stopping because of 'fan complaint'. Didn't know if this was a no-no.

I'm about 30 games into my first year. I think I have successfully moved from the "Unsure but trying like hell to Act Assured" to being pretty confident about being able to get things right, and manage a smoothly run game. It's just the curve balls that come at me sometimes that catch me TRULY UNSURE of how to proceed. In those spots I have been deferring, not wanting to trample on protocols, written and unwritten.

ps. Then I log in here, get edur-cated and next time it won't be a curve ball. Thanks all!

From previous responses it sounds like take any valid information you can from any source is the way to go. Now, I guess that the experience/aplomb would show with how you handle it. How you stop the process and get it right all the while keeping the respect for the team of officials intact.

I guess the question to ask in this case is "did you know, 100%, that something was goofy?" If yes, I would of blown things dead right away and got together with my partner and told him what I thought. Then as a crew make a decision as to how to start the half. Ultimately if we handle things professionally and comunicate with the coaches as to why we're changing things up, I believe we don't lose any crew integrity.

Maybe it's just me but as competitive (and furstrating) as coaches can be, I think that they are just looking for us to be fair and get things right.

Keep working hard, any goofy situations like this are a good learning experience...

cheers;)