Jr High...GIRLS
 

Well during the regular season I don't do anything sub-varsity because my schedule is full with varsity and college assignments. However I decided that I would take some fall jr. high girls games this year. I asked the assignor to put me with new officials that may need some help, which he did. I had a parocial (catholic) double header on Saturday. What a fiasco. It was the "big"game well they thought it was, partner was a no show. Another official was there watching and they asked him to help (I might have been better doing it solo) Game 1 was fine. Game 2 the "varsity" was aweful Teams were both poor, but the fans and coaches thought they were great. Gym was way to tiny (Stage is outofbounds on one side) 2 T's one on a person running on court without being called on, during a live ball. And one on visiting coach for driving me nuts. AHHH! Sorry just needed to vent to others who have been there. :)

Ehhh...just a normal day at that level. :rolleyes:

I won't generally Whack! a middle schooler for that. :)

My immediate reaction to your post was, "Me neither."

But pretty quickly it turned to, "Well, why not?" It's a meaningless pre-season game at a level where the focus is, or should be, on teaching kids the fundamentals of the game. Meaningful learning involves more than just listening to instruction and doing what they are told, but in trying stuff, making mistakes, and learning from them. In the same way we come to own rules by kicking them, this girl now owns this rule.

Just thinking out loud.

Exactly.

Once, during a JrH girls game, a team was constantly taking their sweet time coming out of time outs/quarters. I used the resumption-of-play procedure, which resulted in a 5-second violation. The parents of the violating team were furious, and before I administered the ball for the other team, one parent said "you need to teach them. They're just young girls."

I turned around and told him, "That's how you teach them. By enforcing the rules."

Generally, I would agree with you on your thoughts about why you wouldn't whack the middle schooler for this, however what would you do if you had an opposing coach starts questioning you on why you didn't whack it? Are you going to whack that coach when he/she goes off on you for not whacking it? I had the same dilemma in a freshman football game when it came to lining up in the neutral zone and those little things, and it got ugly enough that I had to flag the coach for USC. Sometimes a little teaching sounds great, but there's always an a**hole waiting for you to flag or whack that s**t and ends up getting the flag or whacked.

Going into my first season, I'm wondering how many games I have will be like this? :)

A lot.

For me, this goes into the category - I always regret the T's I didn't give more than the T's I did.

Plus I agree with the sentiment as discussed here - teaching early.....it's like uniform violations or intentional fouls - "Well, that happened last game and it wasn't called."

Way to take care of bidness. (Of course, at the level you usually ref, you knew that! ;) )

Bits,
Girls' MS, as well as Boys' MS, often have very excited players coming off the bench for one of only a few times in a season.
Running out onto the floor could well be "glee" driven as opposed to advantage driven.
I can stop play without calling a technical and still live with it.
All players are not equal. :)

Situations like this are thankfully rare. It's usually a kid having a brain fart or lacking the kind of situational awareness that comes with time and experience. Although, I'm starting to like the idea of enforcement as a teaching tool to help facilitate that experience.

But, to your point. I have had coaches question this before. And I've had pretty good success saying, "Coach, I would do the same thing for your kids." Most good coaches understand where you're coming from.

But occasionally a coach will go off. Why? Sometimes he's frustrated, and taking it out on me. Some coaches just don't get it. Sometimes its tactical, creating a scene trying to intimidate me or to get his way by making it less painful to just give him what he wants. Note that all of these are "him issues" not "me issues". Unfortunately for him, I will not take abuse, I do not intimidate, and tantrums do not sway me. If you don't believe me, I'd be happy to provide you with references, both coaches and my children. :D

Sure, after a game like that I may re-think my approach to future situations. I don't like pain any more than you do. My goal is to achieve a good outcome to every situation. Some days I get better results than others. But I cannot let fear of a grown adult's potentially adverse reaction to dictate how I handle situations.

In the over 30 years our local kids rec league has been operating, our policy is to make the call, then explain the call (if necessary) rather than let the violation go. It is our philosophy that this is the best way for kids to learn the rules, plus it promotes consistency in the officiating. Prior to each season, we explain this to all the coaches at the annual pre-season coaches meeting. We've never heard (at least in the 17 years I've been on the Board) a persuasive argument against doing it this way.

If parents don't like it, they can join the Board and work to change it or they can put a sock in it.

Mick, I have to say that if you were my partner, and you handled this situation the way you describe, you'd probably get a smile and a thumbs up from me. :)

One important aspect that really hasn't been explicitly addressed yet is context. As you point out, there is a very real difference between a clear cut violation in an undecided game, and a rookie mistake by one of "the scrubs" while having his moment in the sun.

Amen to that.

I find that to be a very persuasive argument, backed up by significant personal experience. Hard to argue with that.

Thank you for contributing to my education.