Anyone ref grils AAU Regional at Fairfax HS this past weekend? I know we have some VA officials.

Don't blame me.
I was home... reading. :cool:

Not to worry
 

We're in the medal round next weekend after two amazingly close wins - a 2 pointer and an overtime win in a winner advances game. First time to break thru in three years of regionals - girls were PUMPED! Oh yeah, and coach was pumped too :)

I wudda sent you a bottle of Chivas, Mick, but you blew the question!

Hope you were readin' your rules - us coaches never have time ;)

Hawks Coach: I was supposed to work some, but I had to go out of town unexpectedly. I work a lot of girls AAU games and I enjoy doing them. Were you happy with the officiating? As you have no doubt observed, we have good and "not so good" officials doing these tournaments. Over the past 8 or 9 years, I have seen some outstanding games and a lot of blow outs.

dbl - Honestly, it was a mixed bag, as usual for the level of play. The worst case was an official who actually crossed his partner - haven't seen that in a long time (don't do it guys!!!). Opponents player attempted to catch a pass thrown over her head, fails to catch and drops ball in front of her, falls to floor and is holding ball. She gained control somewhere in all of this, may have already been on floor before getting control, maybe prior to reaching floor. Trail (R1) near play but on back side of receiver passes on call, lead (R2) on other side but in position to see whether control was gained, calls travel.

R1 is by my bench and looks at me as he gives us the ball to inbound and says "That wasn't a travel - she didn't have control." Even repeats it, like I don't get it and repeating the exact same phrase will aid my comprehension. Luckily for R2 I don't think the opposing coach heard it, although every player in the area from both teams (including my entire bench and the girl who may or may not have travelled) heard this comment. R1 has just put the target on R2's back. Anytime R2 makes a questionable call you can go to R1 and appeal the call, saying, "we both know he makes bad calls!"

Pool A had one awesome team, a good team, and 3 really weak teams. Our pool had three evenly matched teams and one slightly stronger team. Pool A had all blowouts, but three teams advance! We got lucky enough to win our close ones while two very deserving teams stay home this weekend because only two advance from our side. It never seems fair.

Hawks Coach:

Just got a call from my assignor and on Saturday, I have the 6:30 & 8:00 G14 AAU games at Thomas Jefferson HS. I also have the 8:00 pm game for G12 AAU at Westfields HS. Do you know if you will be at either location?

I am at Westfields at 1:45 - 12U B bracket playoff, with two games the next day if we win this first game, go home for good if we lose. Probably won't cross paths - oh well!

Also, I advise you double check that Saturday 8 PM game time. The Vogues have adjusted a lot of schedules, I just tried to see who in 12U you might have and found only a 7PM game at Westfields. There is no game listed for later than 7PM in either A or B bracket Saturday. There is an A bracket championship game on Sunday at 8 - I will probably attend that game to watch, if we survive Saturday (because we will have a late Sunday game at a minimum, with two championships to follow - and with some luck, we could be the first championship game).

Fairfax, CA? I'm only 30 minutes from there. Mind telling me who the assignor is? I'd like to come over and work a few games! If you want to e-mail me directly, I am at:

[email protected]

Thanks!

Wrong coast - we are at Fairfax, VA! Kinda long haul for you.

My bad Coach! I have the 8:00 game at Westfield on Sunday, not Saturday. I am at Jefferson at 8:00 on Saturday. I'm good, but not that good! :D

Any idea on who I might have at 6:00 & 8:00 on Saturday at Jefferson?

If you get a chance, take a look at the 8:00 championship game at 8:00 on Sunday. It would be nice to have your comments and to "meet" a fellow poster. I will be the tall, handsome ref....my partner (unless it changes)will be a "vertically challenged" Black official (good ref and a good partner).

Hey, what's a little traveling? Come on over, we can always use good officials and the Vogues tournament is a pretty good tournament. About 3 or 4 years ago, I did the regional(?) semi-final game for I believe U16's or U17s and that team went on to finish 1st or 2nd in the nation. They were called the Philadelphia Belles. The Belles seem to have a boatload of teams in all age groups. We see some really good teams come out of Maryland, along with local VA teams.

You got a couple of PG County A teams from MD, the Sparks and the Lady Panthers. Expect fast, physical teams with extremely vocal fans in this matchup. Don't see many teams in this age group, so I don't know how they'll match up.

Then you got Maryland Flames B team from Montgomery County against the Lady Cougars from PG County. I expect this might be a bit of a mismatch unfortunately, but you never know til they suit up and play - let me know!

You did real good on your Sunday game. This will be the championship, unless the losers bracket team wins, in which case they will replay on Monday. either way, you get the top two teams. Having watched all the top teams in this age group, this game will likely be very close and a gem to watch. I hope we are playing on Sunday (medals would be nice after all!), and I will surely stay for this game. Hopefully I am the one with the happy team.

Re: Not to worry
 

It was me coach, i worked your game.:) email me and i'll give you the add. to send the Chivas. :)

Sorry, got tired of waiting so I drank it myself. Maybe next time.

Hey, if you guys need more officials, I'm free most of this weekend :D.

Mark: You really should consider joining our association. You can work as much or as little as you want to. We have a few officials that are still in college. I think you said one time that you did not have a car, but if you do, check us out at http://www.cboa.org.

Looking forward to this weekend. I have worked the Sparks and Flames before (if my memory is still good) and enjoyed the games.

Going back to your games on 27/28 April, what times were your games? Just curious who the officials were. I can go back to our web site and see who they were.

Friday 8 PM, Saturday 6 PM, Sunday 10 AM. I'll let you guess who the issue was with :)

Hawks Coach:

Not to beat a dead horse, but you have piqued my interest. I know the 12 officials for all 6 games, by day, and I know at Fairfax, they divide the main gym into court #1 and court #2 (usually side by side). Can you (or better yet will you), tell me which day and court #? I don't plan to say anything to the officials, but I am really curious. I'll make it easy for you:

Friday: officials were white/black and black/black
Saturday: officials were black/white and white/asian
Sunday: officals were white/black and black/black

If you choose not to answer, no problem. Good luck this weekend.

dblref
We lost on saturday, didn't bother with the 1.5 hour trip on sunday - took a day of golf and (unfortunately) that four-letter word that starts with W! Our sister team (and archrivals) won the 12B bracket - who won the 12A championship game you reffed? Was it worth it? I saw a couple of good 12A games on Saturday.

"Wife"? :D

Chuck

Close enuff - that 4-letter W always conjures up another, less desirable one :D

Had the MD. Sparks vs Fairfax Stars. Good game won by Fairfax Stars. Sparks jumped to a 12-13 point lead, but Stars caught them by halftime. Second half was nip and tuck with neither team having more than a 5 point lead. Game was tied with 1:20 left, Stars went up 4 and Sparks had to foul(double bonus both ways). Game came down to Stars shooting F/T's well. Really enjoyed the game.

The game before mine was really close (can't remember the teams, but should be on the web page). Winning team was dressed in black and had a point guard (#11 - Collier) that was one heck of a ball handler -- best player on the court by far.

My first game at Jefferson on Saturday night was a 30 point blowout won by DC Panthers(?). Kara Lawson's sister plays on that team and plays HS ball at West Potomac. Kara plays at Tenn. 2nd. game was a forfeit -- don't know why, but I didn't complain. See you on the court sometime.

You'll see more of Camille Collier - she's a heck of a bball player, and allegedly even better at soccer. She got an offer from our A team but stayed B because of WAGS soccer commitments. That was our fellow Flames team you saw, taking a very skilled Beltway Lady Cougars.

Didn't see the Sparks, but Fairfax had a good guard as well - #15. Thought she was a pretty special player too.

I was impressed with #15 also, good at taking it to the hole. I believe she was high scorer for the game. The Sparks also had a pretty good player (#3), but late in the 2nd half with Sparks down by 6 or 7, she started arguing with some of her team mates because they were not playing as hard as she was. Her coach pulled her immediately and she sat for about 3 minutes and came back. She scored 5 in a row to pull them back within 1 and they eventually lost because of Stars F/T shooting.

Overall, the coachin was pretty good although I did see a coach receive 3 T's at the end of the first half in a game at Jefferson on Saturday. Physical game with double bonus both ways and as the Vogues coach (sort of vocal in the last couple of minutes) was walking across the floor at halftime, he said something to the effect that "this is just pitiful". Official whacked him, coach said he was talking to his players (about 10 feet in front of him). Official said you were looking at me when you said it, and coach said "this is F'ing B/S", second whack and ejection. Coach turned to other official and said you need to do something about your partner, first official gave him the 3rd whack.

My friend was the first official and after the coach left, my friend said that the coach was vocal the whole game and he had told him that he didn't want to hear about it any more. I asked him why he didn't whack the coach earlier if he was continually questioning everything. He said he thought the coach might stop. Don't think so. IMHO, it never should have gotten this out of hand, but it wasn't my game and I did not see all of the first half, only saw the last 5 or 6 minutes. Hated to see something like this happen.

Sorry for the long post, but just found this interesting.

Sounds like the 3rd T was just piling on for no real reason. The same guy whacked him 3 times in 20 seconds? The third one sounds a little thin-skinned. IMHO he should have let partner give the third if necessary, especially since last comment was directed toward second offical (even if it was about the first one). Since they just ejected him with two quick Ts anyway, first official should have let the last comment pass (it isn't the worst I have heard, and not on the level of the other things he said). At that point, just allow the second official to step in, point him toward the nearest exit and say something like, "Coach, you are no longer involved in this game. You already have two technicals. You need to leave now." One official giving out three quick Ts begins to sound like a personal battle.

Without being there, I think I have to agree with HawkCoach. I've never even given a second T to a coach, let alone a 3rd. But in that situation, if the coach is walking out and isn't cursing or doing something blatently outrageous, I think I would just let him have his little say and then be gone.

Of course, if he is cursing up a storm for all to hear, then you probably have justification for another T; but it doesn't sound like that's what happened in this case. Just my $.02

Chuck

Actually guys, I don't think the first T should have been given. I think the official (and he is a veteran), should have basically ignored the coach as the coach was leaving the bench area and following his team. O.K., the coach should not have said anything, but it wasn't that bad (at least to me). I think it could have been handled much easier and the coach would have been there for the 2nd half. The "f'ing b/s" comment was anger at being assessed what he thought was an unwarranted T. The coach could/should have handled that better. I have given the 2nd of 2 before, but I have never given 3 and I hope like h*ll I never do. As I said, just an ugly situation all around and did not do anything to make the 2nd half much fun for the team or I suspect, for the officials.