Hey - watch that player (not what you think)

[Mark Padgett]

Girl's 8th grade rec game, coach comes over to us prior to the game starting and asks us to "watch out" for number 11. I've heard this kind of stuff before. But then he tells us he means number 11 on his team. It seems he's been having problems with her playing rough and he hasn't been able to correct her attitude. He told us he's cut back on her playing time when this happens but she's still fouled out of half their games and got tossed in one other.

The funny part is that he said he'd just bench her but she's his niece and he can't handle his sister being mad at him. Oh yeah - he said she's also his leading scorer.

What he really wanted was that whenever we called a foul on her, to tell her to watch herself and to not play so rough. We did it once or twice, but she got her fourth early in Q3 and didn't come in again until there were two minutes left in the game. She then got her fifth about 30 seconds later.

I have to agree, she's a pretty rough player. BTW - the coach thanked us after the game for "calling it tight on her". I thought we called it the same on her as we did on everyone else. She just plays that much rougher. Too bad.