Mark P, maybe you could turn Perfesser Fowl into something of a project. If you are going to be consistently scheduled with the guy, maybe challenge yourself in a couple of ways towards achieving some personal goals.

A couple of thoughts:

- become his "mentor" w/o him even knowing it. Look for continual improvement from one series of games with him to the next over a period of time.

- model professionalism and good mechanics and game management to him.

- discuss in game game management strategy...see how he responds.

- use your time with him to practice your skills of giving "constructive" criticsm.

I'm sure there are other opportunities for personal growth. These are just food for thought.

Of course, maybe he is a horse that doesn't want to be led to water. In that case, just focus on you and your professionalism when on the court with him.

Good luck.

If I were coaching, I could honestly see myself asking you to throw me out, just so i could go do something else. My god thats alot. I would assume you would just make me sit there as you couldnt leave the court either

Well, I worked the game with that guy last night. Before we started, he came over and asked me if I thought he called too many fouls when he refs! I hesitated and he said he got a call from our assignor who told him he had comments from quite a few officials who told him that.

I said I thought he called "quite a few" and maybe he should concentrate more on the "advantage/disadvantage principle". He asked me to explain what that was, which surprised me a little. So I did. He nodded and thanked me. We worked the game (5th grade girls) and he still called somewhere between two and three times as many fouls as I called but it was better than the other night.

In all fairness, I don't think he'll ever change totally, but may at least get somewhat better at holding off on the whistle on all contact.

What took you so long to have that talk? I would have been having it in the 1st quarter of the 1st game. We're a team just like the players. We need to be able to tell each other what we can do better during the game.

I guess I'll just put it straight. The guy is very arrogant and usually doesn't listen to anyone. He likes to talk over people and has virtually no respect for anyone's opinion other than his own. Knowing how he is, my guess is that the assignor "lowered the boom" on him and it took that to get the guy to even deign to ask something of someone else other than himself.

I hate to say this about a fellow official, but if I never work with him again, that'll be just fine with me.

Those of you who know me know I usually can get along with anyone, so that's just an indication of how extreme this guy is.