Game from hell

[Jay R]

Well, it was bound to happen. Today I refereed my 40th game of the year (my rookie season) and it was the most difficult by far. I need to vent. It was girls game (Gr7-8) and it was terrible. Withing seconds of the tip, bodies were flying and the clutching and grapping never ended until the final buzzer.

One of the coaches (the most reasonable of the two) mentionned three or four times that he did not want to see anyone get hurt. All I could say was that we were calling fouls about every 20 seconds on average, I don't know what else we could have done? We probably called 60 fouls, 4 girls fouled out, one tech to a coach (the not so reasonable one). The losing coach implied that we let get out of hand, I replied that we had just done a game before that one where none of the teams got in bonus in either half.

I feel that I've worked hard and prepared myself to do a good job. I certainly take all the games seriously (no matter the level), but it's discouraging when coaches and parents seem to think that a game like this is the officials fault. Any thoughts?

[Mark Padgett]

Jay - if you called 60 fouls, had 4 girls foul out and issued one howler monkey T, then you did all anyone could ask to keep kids from getting hurt. The only two things I could add are:

1) were any of the fouls of a nature to be where you could be justified in ruling them flagrant and eject someone so the rest of the kids would get the message you weren't going to tolerate rough play

2) if you feel confident you did all you could, then don't even care one iota about what anyone in "The Great Unwashed" has to say or think - remember that you and your partner are probably the only two people in the entire gym who know how a game should be officiated and have actually done it before

[Dan_ref]

This is going to happen at this level with new refs. It's
part of your "basic training". But you should realize
there's almost nothing you can do to prevent players from
getting hurt, no matter what the level is. Once you
come to accept this you won't listen to coaches saying
"I just don't want anyone to get hurt out there". Oh
yeah, after a game is done, don't explain and justify your
game to either coach. You worked hard, gave it all you
got, that's enough. No need to explain.

[MOFFICIAL]

Jay,
I agree with Mark wholeheartedly.
The only thing I may have and have done is mention to the teams when administering free throws that you and your partner may be the only two left on the floor in the fourth quarter.

[rcwilco]

Remember that you only call what they bring to the floor, and what the coaches are yelling at them to do. No hitting or slapping, clean game means few fouls.....rough game, bodies flying means many fouls. This idea that we called such and such a game, is usually an excuse to blame us for the game that they played. I had a game this season where we were in double bonus for both teams at the beginiing of the second and fourth quarter, with constant reaching and blocks all night. No one would listen nor get the message, and the coaches were saying the same thing aobut "you guys gotta call something". They just seem to come every once and a while.

[bluezebra]

Many, many years ago, I was working a JV HS game. The play was uncontrolled, and we were in the bonus half way thgrough the first quarter. In the second half, you'd have thought the players were electrified. We never came close to a bonus situation. They learned their lesson the hard way, but they learned.

Bob

[rainmaker]

Last fall, I was doing some games at the local Hoop, and as I was leaving, a dad came dashing up to me and said, "You gotta go talk to those refs on Floor 3. They aren't calling anything, and it's really getting rough. I just don't want anyone to get hurt." I looked up at the scoreboard on floor 3, and said, "Dad, they've called 10 fouls on both teams and it's only the third quarter. The players obviously aren't listening to the refs. Why don't you talk to the players? Maybe you have more authority than we do." Then I walked out. Good grief!

[dblref]

Originally posted by rainmaker
Last fall, I was doing some games at the local Hoop, and as I was leaving, a dad came dashing up to me and said, "You gotta go talk to those refs on Floor 3. They aren't calling anything, and it's really getting rough. I just don't want anyone to get hurt." I looked up at the scoreboard on floor 3, and said, "Dad, they've called 10 fouls on both teams and it's only the third quarter. The players obviously aren't listening to the refs. Why don't you talk to the players? Maybe you have more authority than we do." Then I walked out. Good grief!

I love it when a parent says something like this to me. I guess they expect you to walk out on the court and tell one of the officials that you are taking over because they aren't calling anything -- even though it was double bonus on both teams. This is the time that you tell the parent to tell their son/daughter to learn to play better.

[ChuckElias]

Originally posted by Dan_ref
But you should realize
there's almost nothing you can do to prevent players from
getting hurt, no matter what the level is.

This is a great point, Dan. One night when I was working the same kind of game Jay had (7-8 grade girls), very low-key, no problems, though. At one point, Team A scored and B1 and B2 are bringing the ball upcourt with no pressure. It's just the two of them walking/jogging in the backcourt. B2 trips over her own feet (no one within 10 feet of her), falls literally flat on her face, and breaks a tooth. Half of her tooth was just sitting there on the floor. It was unbelievable. But it just shows that sometimes, stuff happens and there isn't anything that anybody could have done to stop it.

Chuck

[Bart Tyson]

Dan_ref said it "basic training". You need to welcome these games. These are the games you learn from. The more games you have like this then the faster you learn. How will you be able to handle tough games at a higher level if not for these type games. Good luck.

[Jay R]

Bart, I think you're right. Now that I've had a day to think about it, I realize that I will improve from these types of situations, although it wasn't fun at the time. That is the approach I was taking all year when I had coaches who were more vocal. I figure I better get used to howlers if I want to move the ranks.

[Mark Padgett]

The point others are making about you not being able to prevent everyone from getting hurt at any time is a good one. About three years ago I was working a boys varsity level game and we only had about 3 fouls total in the first half. We were in the middle of the fourth quarter and had only 2 fouls total in that half at that point. Believe me, we weren't missing anything, either. Both teams were very well coached and both teams were playing defense with their feet. In fact, on a couple of the fouls, the players who got called actually said "Sorry" to the players they fouled!

All of a sudden, the offensive post player turned around and punched his defender right in the nose! Yes, there was blood and a bunch more players joined in. We even had the benches empty.

After we straightened out the mess, we called the game. I asked both coaches what they think really happened after such a mild game and one said, "I really don't know" and the other said, "Beats the (insert expletive here) out of me?"

To this day, I still don't know what really happened. The players weren't talking.

I guess the lesson here is that you can call a lot of fouls or you can call a few fouls but an injury can happen at any time totally unrelated to the number of fouls you call.

Go figure.