Officials dismissed between games
 

Earlier this week at a local jr. high, the following allegedly happened. (all third hand, wasn't there, didn't see it) Girls game tied at the end of regulation. Just before the buzzer, home inbounds and H1 takes it to the basket. V1 contests the shot and H1 is knocked to the floor without a whistle. Referee is instructing timer to put 3 minutes on the clock for overtime. Home coach, as one might imagine, is unhappy with the no call and voices his opinion. Ref calls a T. V1 goes to the line, makes one, and the Ref declares the game over. Home principal comes in and demands that the overtime should be played. Ref refuses. The crew is sent packing.

The principal (former player and coach) and the visitors' chief of police (former player, coach, and official) called the boys game.

wow... nice to know that school supports the officials so well.

How is this even possible? I'd be calling my assignor as soon as I'm out of the building and sending a letter to the state.

And you best believe I'd be getting paid for both games in this situation! :mad:

P.S. Shouldn't the overtime period have began with free throw since the technical was not part of the 4th quarter?

We all know that will be a fairly called game - NOT :eek:

Why would the officials agree to leave? Why didn't they toss the principal out of the gym? He may be the principal, but he's just a spectator, just like everyone else.

The principle may be the one that hired them....and has the power to fire them. Perhaps he exercised that right.

Plus, the refs were wrong. Their incorrect application of the rules did take away the chance for the home team to win.

There may be a clause to allow the school to not pay them when they call the game before it should be over (which they effectively did) in absence of a forfeit situation.

Give me some popcorn.....
 

I'd have like to see this.........

To be fair...this sounds like a pretty big screw up by the officials. The principal was correct. Start OT with the FT's and play on. The officials screwed the home team regardless of whether the principal, home coach, or even the police chief ARE all jackasses. This is a scenario where lack of knowledge of the rules and poor game management skill makes the officials look bad and open to criticism.

The principal had no business dismissing them and the state and local assn. should step in and follow up, but the officials created this mess themselves. Hard to expect a great deal of sympathy from any governing body looking at this objectively.

Did they get paid for BOTH games?

BTW, who do you get to do these lower level games?

Most of the time it's less experienced officials.

We've all screwed up. It's part of the learning process.

He may also be game administration.

1. Yes, the crew got the rule wrong on when to shoot.
2. They're a middle school crew. I know a lot of middle school guys who'd get this one wrong. We've seen some self-professed varsity officials come here that probably would get this wrong.
3. Do you really think the principal knew the rule? I don't.

Yep the officials got it wrong. Had the game not been tied, the game would have been over and the T would have been irrelevant to the outcome of the game. Since the game was tied when time expired, the game was still in progress since an extra period was required. The T was awarded between periods at that point and this the extra period should have started with the foul shots for the T with ball awarded to V team at division line opposite table side.

Still don't like the idea of the principal and visitor's CoP calling the game as they have too much interest in who wins and whoever loses could probably protest the game (although at the MS level does it really matter?)

Personally I enjoy calling MS games. I enjoy that age group and while the coaches/players and fans can cause a ruckus at times, it isn't near the level of HS. True though, I have called with some fairly inexperienced officials but I just remember that I was one myself once. And although I have been calling for several years, I still make mistakes sometimes - even in the MS games.


BTW, I thought OT was 4 minutes ?!?!?!?
Robby

I am going to assume that they do not play 8 minute quarters at that level. So it would be half of the quarter length. I am assuming that they played 6 minutes as that is what is played in many areas that I am personally familiar with.

Peace

Wanna re-think that and get back to us? :)

I've worked middle school games that have used 6 minute quarters, and some have used 7 or 8. It's really up to that local league.

Recently, I had an MS game that had eight-minute quarters. I called a marginal foul in the first minute, which led to two made visitors free throws. At halftime, the score was Home 51, Visitors 2.

We played six-minute quarters after that.

Let me clarify my statement. Had the game not been tied AND the shooting of the 2 free throws (from the technical) would not have decided (1) whether the game would have went into overtime or (2) changed the outcome of the game, then they would be irrelevant to the game. When I wrote my original statement I was thinking of the score being at the point where the Technical foul would not have changed the outcome of the game. Granted the T shots would need to be competed if the score is close enough that those shots could change the outcome of the regulation game.

Protest to who? Most MS leagues don't have a state governing body.

Plus, they had one adult from each team doing the game. Why is it hard to believe they could have been impartial. I've seen a few schools that use a couple of their home varsity players to ref freshmen games (Oregon doesn't require certified officials below JV...though most do use certified officials).

Thus why I said, for MS games it probably doesn't matter. Here we require certified officials at every level - ES, MS, JV and HS. Also, no official is assigned to a school game where an immediate family member coaches, plays or ATTENDS so I can not officiate a school game at a school where one of my kids attends even if he/she doesn't play ball there. Not saying they can't be impartial just saying that it isn't a best case scenario.

Robby

Middle school games here have to be 6 minute quarters. 9th grade games can be 6 or 7 minutes, and JV games can be anywhere from 6-8.

We play a 2 minute overtime period for any game with quarters under 8 minutes.

To now fill in a couple of the gaps: Jr. high around here is totally unregulated.
A school can use anybody they want to call the games. Most do get their officials from one of the associations, but it is also not uncommon for a school to make a deal with one official to handle its games.

"You call them and bring somebody with you."

Such was the case here.

The guy who made the call has been a registered official for 10 years or so, and has a considerable amount of varsity experience.

Apparently both the home coach and the principal both did know the correct rule, and obviously the official in charge did not.

My Dark Side ...
 

Back in the olden days, when I was coaching middle school basketball, there was one school on our schedule that would use two of their physical education teachers for all their home games. These two guys were pretty good. They made some odd and peculiar calls, but were totally unbiased, making odd and peculiar calls against both teams.

While this is possible, it's not necessarily the case from what you wrote in the OP. I took it that they were upset with the official making the call/no-call he made and insisted on overtime anyway

True, but since the officials in the OP were going with a 3 minute overtime, you can assumet he quarters were 6.

That's better. Good job. :)

I actually talked to the coach, and he stated the rule correctly. It was my understanding that he knew at he time, as opposed to being made aware afterward. As far as what the principal knew, whether the coach told her the rule, or she already knew, or didn't know but was upset, I'm not sure.