Another assault on an official - sort of

[Mark Padgett]

Worked a 5th grade girls game last night (tons of fun) with an official who has about 5 years experience and is in the local HS officials assn. The visiting coach and her assistant were chipping at him from the start about him calling the game too loose. Of course they wanted every call. Finally, there was a play right in front of their bench and they wanted him to call a travel on the kid from the home team. They were actually screaming right in my partner's face. He whacked the coach with a T. She went nuts and her assistant grabbed her and sat her down. I waited a moment and then reminded her that she lost her coaching box. She was really happy about that.

Here's the sticky part. As soon as the game was over (they got blown out), she rushed up to my partner and put her forearm against his chest and attempted to push him. Since he outweighs her by about 100 pounds, she wasn't successful. He kept trying to walk away but she kept jumping in front of him, yelling that she "wanted his name" because she was going to "report him and he would be finished". I got in between them and told her it was a league rule that we were not allowed to give out our names (true) and that she could just "report" the time and the gym and they could figure out who it was, as long as she made sure they didn't think it was me. She took all that in and finally left but she was still steamed.

My partner called our assignor and he later called me for my version. I had asked my partner if he wanted to report it to the police because assault on a sports official here in Oregon is a class A misdemeanor and will be prosecuted. It can bring a fine and/or jail time. I carry a copy of the law in my bag. He said just to forget it. We worked a second game then and had no problems at all. This was the second night in a row in which a of mine partner teed up a coach but I didn't. I must be slipping.