Partner wears out whistle

[Mark Padgett]

Boys 8th grade spring league yesterday. I had three games with a young man in his mid-20s. I've worked with both him and his dad many times before. First two games, no real problems. Third game - totally different. About three minutes into the game, he whacks the green HC. There's a timeout and I ask him what happened. He said the guy was ranting about us "giving the other team too much leeway" and that they didn't need any help because they were an "8th grade all-star team" and his kids were all 7th graders. My partner gave him the stop sign when the ranting began but he kept it up so he whacked him.

Apparently, that didn't do the trick because before the half was over, he whacked the guy again (he gone), whacked the AC once, then ejected two parents. In the second half, he whacked three of their players (one was flagrant with an ejection for dropping the F bomb) and then got the AC again with about three minutes left in the game (he gone, too). We had to get a parent out of the stands to "coach" the team at that point. The final score was 72-15. I bet you can guess who won.

Oh yeah - one of the league reps was there and saw the whole thing and told him after the game that he did a great job.