Can I get some love here ?
 

Decent Boys Varsity game. Partner calls a decent game. I'm still the new varsity official, so I generally get the higher rated and more experienced partners. We had a minor difference of opinion on an intentional foul.

I'm trail. Ball is in partners primary. I got Player A doing the backdoor thing on the defender, it works. Player A beats defender by a nice step or so. Before the ball gets to him the defender gives him a very solid push in the back. :eek:Its almost identical to the kid pushing the other player in the back on the breakaway lay-up ,except it this case he doesn't have the ball yet.

I tweet and call an intentional foul. 2 shots and the ball. Partner made a small attempt to talk me out of the intentional. His main argument is it looks better if the player has the ball. I stayed with the intentional. I'm thinking this sitch is the perfect example for 4-19-3. The whole neutralizing an opponent's obvious advantage.

What do you guys thinking bout this ?

Easy X, as far as I'm concerned. No question about it, and I don't care how it looks.

BTW, I'd remove the reference to your partner's appearance. It's really irrelevant.

I guess you had to be there, but I'm not sure I'm seeing an IF here. A hard foul maybe, but not I. JMO. Like I said, guess you had to be there.

The way you describe it, sounds like a good IF.

A push in the back against a player with an obvious position advantage? Easy intentional; should be called every time.

And what is the difference between a hard foul (excessive contact) and IF?

MTD, Sr.

Chess Ref:

You did good.

MTD, Sr.

Well, there's a difference between a hard foul and excessive contact. Excessive contact depends on the situation -- if two players are moving quickly and collide and there's a foul, it's going to be a lot of contact, but not necessarily excessive considering the circumstances.

Based on the OP, though, it's a push from a guy who knows he's beat into the back of someone to prevent him from catching a pass and laying it in. Sounds like an IF to me. And frankly, I never put much stock in a partner so willing to criticize a partner's call. I have a different angle and more than likely I am not looking at the same place (at least I hope) as a partner.

it sounds like a solid call.

your partner may have been a more upset that you called an IF in his primary and he had nada, thought it made him look bad?

From your description, I believe you done good.

That didn't seem to be the issue. The players involved came from my primary. The call was made in the grey area.

A tough call to make but I believe you made the right call.

This is not "a tough call to make". It's an easy call to make if we have read and understood the rule book on Intentional Fouls.

Why are so many officials afraid to call Intentional Fouls???

Concur. The way I see it here is:

The less experienced the official and lower the level of play, the more likely you are to see the foul and less likely you are to see the ref make the call. The more experienced the official, the more likely it is to see the call at the lower level.....

At the upper levels, the call is probably made more often by the officials if it occurs - but these players "know how to foul better" and avoid that type of foul. JMO