Say What?
 

I had a girl's varsity game on Tuesday and an usual the read the statement about sportsmanship and no sexist statements, yada, yada.

2-person game...midway through first quarter I am lead opposite table in next to the home student section. I hear a male student fan yell out to the ball handler, "Hey 21, you are cutie what to be my girlfriend?" The ball is passed out of bounds and I call over game management. I stand right in front of the student section and wait, when he gets to me and tell him what I heard and that I am not sure who said it. I told him if I hear it again I will remove the entire student section so they better police themselves. I put the ball back in play in front of the home cheerleaders and one says, "He was just giving her a compliment." Yes, she was a blonde cheerleader!

ooo imo

A big joke isn't it.
 

I think "What a Joke" everytime they read that crap. Last night - they read it before my Boys V Game - ball goes up to begin the game - and the bull**** from the coach of the home team never stopped - at the top of his lungs the whole game!:p

Why did you allow it?

Good point - good question
 

Still trying to learn when to pull that trigger.

Fair Enough
 

It's all part of the process. Let me ask this, were his players also chatty?

Agreed. I don't get what the problem was.

This isn't getting my attention, much less calling game management over to deal with it. If they want to get in the middle of it themselves, so be it, but I have other stuff to worry about.

Kids
 

No - his kids were great - made sure to get us the ball - no chatter at all - addressed us as sir etc:)

You're kidding, right? :o

Assuming I hear any of that, I'd be trying my best not to laugh. :p

Maybe I'd get game management to find the kid so I can hook him up! :cool:

Unfortunately, I don't think he/she is kidding...why in the world any official would react like this to that tame of a comment is beyond me. I just don't get it.:confused:

If I hear it, and I did, I am going to nip it in the bud if I can. I would rather stop it when I hear it than have a player come up to me and tell about it. If they didn't want me to take care of it they wouldn't make an announcement about it before the game that it is not allowed.

So if a girl said the same thing to a guy, you would stop the game to nip it in the bud?

If you do not like the comments, just tell the kids to knock it off. You do not need to make a big production out of it.

Peace

I've never heard such an announcement (not saying it's not true, just that it helps explain some of the comments you're getting)

GoodwillRef:

No, you are NOT going to nip in the bud. It is a NON-issue. Did the fan make threats of physical violence against you, your partner, or any of the participants? NO! Did the fan leave the stands and enter the court? NO! Worry about officiating the game and not some high school boy making a pass at a high school girl. Your attitude makes me think you officiate high school soccer. Get over yourself.

MTD, Sr.

Nip what in the bud???

Was there some kind of unsportsmanlike comment made in there somewhere? Was there some kind of hostility behind the "Hey, you're a cutie" comment?

You went way overboard on this one, imo. You can disagree with that opinion if you want to, but things like this really give officials the proverbial black eye.

I wasn't sure who said it...I knew the general area where it came from. We all know in the PC world we live in, like it or not, it is not the same when when the gender roles are reversed. I am sure that everyone in the student section will think twice about doing it again. We all handle situations different, there isn't one big band-aid for all situations.

Wow...harsh! :)

I am an egalitarian, so I do not care what the gender roles are if all that was said was it, I find that minor. If the player reacted then you might have an issue, but that did not happen. Do not go looking for something that is not there. People in the stands say a lot worse and we should take action in those cases. This sounds kind of minor and if nothing else was said. And student sections are a little rowdy anyway. I have had many experiences where I will talk to them directly because they will listen or the students around them will get a kick out of the fact the official said something to him. You could have made light of the situation and got it to stop instead of making it seem like someone needed to be thrown out.

Peace

How did this give officials a proverbial black eye? You can agree to disagree and I won't have a problem but who is the one going overboard now?

I didn't yell across the floor I didn't it very respectfully with game management right there so only the student section could here me and then we continued the game, no more than a thirty second delay.

It is different when the gym isn't full, it wasn't in this case, and you can make out all the language than when the gym is full and it just blends in.

+1. Plumber, big time.

Again, you could have waited for a dead ball and went to an adult with the school and got the same thing accomplished. I would have just gone to the AD, principal or administrator and simply tell them the student section is getting a little rowdy and I am sure they would have taken care of it. But to stop the game or to make a big deal out of that specific comment is just silly when you will hear worse.

Peace

It was a dead ball...and it took a whole thirty seconds. I respect your opinion but I will have to disagree with you on this one.

And I have to disagree with your's. That's as OOO as it gets imo. That might be just about the last thing I'd worry about while officiating any game. There's minnows and whales. That's plankton.

JMO.

You went overboard...you had game management come over and deal with a student section that was doing absolutely nothing wrong. In their minds, they are left wondering what the heck is wrong with that ref and thinking that refs are jerks. The game management person is left shaking their head about the ref who made them deal with trivialities and threatened to clear the student section over that trivial comment.

And when people try to tell you that you went overboard, your response is to try to defend what you did.

Whatever.:rolleyes:

Which proverb is that, exactly?
:p

The one about the OOO and the black eye...you know.

Duh!:D

Ugh...I could have gone a lifetime without seeing another image from that rather disturbing collection ever again.

I have to agree with the masses, Goodwill. That comment certainly will get someone in trouble at most workplaces, but let that school teach the kid a lesson about our good friend "sexual harrassment." We sports officials need only concern ourselves with genuine threats and violence (both physical and verbal). I don't think "Hey cutie" qualifies.

What's your motivation behind this comment, Mark?

Wouldn't have raised even one eyebrow on me. Some girl in the stands probably kicked the kid in the shins, anyway.

I had a kid toss a wallet on the floor next to my partner in an obvious joke during a timeout (he was administering the throw-in right by the student section). He got game management and made a huge deal out of it. I can guarantee (cause the AD told me later) that it made the official look like an OOO jerk. Me? I would've laughed and handed the kid his wallet back and probably told him he didn't make enough flipping burgers to buy me.

Matter of fact, I had a great time chatting with a student section the other night. And with a parent at the division line last night before the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters. Anything I can do to make it clear I'm having a good time and I'm human is OK with me.

I'm an Anglican.

Just saying.....

Around here, it would take at least 4 years to live down threatening to remove the student section for something as lame as that. You'd definitely never live it down at that school as long as you do games there.

Agree completely.

I would have cleaned the wallet out before handing it back to the kid. And then told him "thanks". See what he had to say about that. :D

I'm in agreement with the clear majority that this wouldn't even cause me pause, let alone be enough for me to involve GM. However...

What if this statement was made in a clearly sarcastic and hurtful way toward a player who was quite unattractive, overweight, etc. Does this change anyone's feelings on how to handle the matter?

I'd stuck the whole thing in my pocket and said, "thanks"!

No band-aid is needed. This maybe the most ridiculous thing I ever heard of an official doing with regards to a fan.

It's not threatening, profane, vulgar, insulting, racist, sexist, humiliating....the list could go on and on. There is absolutely no reason in the world to even acknowledge that such a simple and innocent comment.

As for the black eye, most fans already have a poor opinion of officials. Everyone who heard the comment or knew what was going on left the building and told everyone they could about the jerk wearing the stripes. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever for you to do anything in that situation.

Thanks for the tip!!

Or at least laughed at the driver license photo. Assuming he had one.

And Occasionally Some Fish ...
 

Not me. I enjoy eating a little meat. I don't eat a lot of red meat, but I have chicken, or turkey, almost every night for dinner.

Making a short story into a long story, ;-).
 

Bainsey:

I officiated H.S. soccer from 1993 until 2005, and I have expierenced far too many partners, in NW Ohio, who think that the crowd is part of their domain.

Case in Point: The philosophy of the soccer officials association in Ohio to which I belonged during that time: A young official (early 20's, LOL; ah to be young and have hair again, :D) stood up and told the group that he had officiated a H.S. game the week before and the crowd (fans from both teams) were constantly yelling its displeasure with his calls (if both sides are mad then he must have been doing a good job, :D) and that by the end of the first half he could not concentrate on his officiating because the crowd's attitude toward his officiating. The concensus of the group was that he should have stopped the game and admonished the crowd regarding its unsportsmanlike behavior toward him that if if did not stop, he would take appropriate action. :eek: RFLMAO!! I had to stop the insanity and tell them they were all nuts, which I did, and then I addressed the young official directly. I told him that if the crowd was bothering him that much he had to do one of two things: (1) Either change is attitude and forget the crowd, Or, (2) Officiating is not for him and that he needs to find another outlet for his engeries. That did not go over well with the powers that be in the group.

MTD, Sr.

I am an Italian, :D.

MTD, Sr.

What was the kid looking for? A reaction. Instead of maybe making the girl blush, he sees you go off the deep end. Talk about hitting a home run. No telling what this guy may say if he ever sees you again.


Good luck with that.

Good question. I suppose it's a HTBT, but if it's harsh enough, I might speak with game management about that, and let them handle it.

I've only been doing soccer for three years. Our soccer board has a similar approach to such matters as they are in basketball: Let game management handle it. If it's non-scholastic (U-10, U-14. etc.), you can go through the coaches, or in extreme cases, you have the power to end the game if the profane fan refuses to leave. My best guess is that others will pressure the fool to leave.

Get over yourself
 

Looks like I am late to post on this one, but.....
REALLY? You don't have other things to worry about?:confused:

Regards to Bruno, your lovely valet, who types your missives.

And they haven't found a cure for that yet.....

Hey, don't forget, I know where you live, in fact I know where everybody lives. :D

MTD, Sr.

I worked a game Tuesday where an assistant coach came up to me and showed me his iPod Touch and said, "this isn't a phone." Confused, I said, "OK?" and he told me an official saw him with it before their previous game and made a huge deal out of it and told him that if he saw him with it during the game, he'd remove him from the bench.

I laughed. I reassured him I wouldn't even be looking in his direction if he was sitting on the bench.

Last night we had an announcer who announced fouls before we reported them. It annoyed me a bit at first, but in the end I wanted to see if he got them all right. He did, with the exception of a foul called by a partner that not only confused him, but the 2 of us also working the game.

Might not be that OOO, Rich. Rule 10-1-3 and a case book play prohibits having a coach from contact with somebody in the press box. Text messages, etc. could fall into that category. That's a rule that might need updating for clarification with the technology advances.

Oh, I know the applicable rules. I also know when to not make a mountain out of a molehill. I also know that during the pregame, my comments are usually limited to "Hi," "Good luck," and if I'm the R, "Are your players properly attired?"

I did have to deal with inappropriately colored prewrap last night, though. Bah.