A matter of style?

[Back In The Saddle]

HS aged boys games last night. I'm finally getting comfortable with this level of ball. I'm feeling really good about that.

I have worked with this particular referee many times, but never at this level. I noticed that after most foul calls he stopped to explain why he made the call. It was kind of comical, in a way, to see him signal the foul, then raise both hands straight up to gesture to the fouler that he needed to be straight up. He seems to have a pretty good repoire with the players, however.

When I call a foul, I give an initial signal then go report. If a player wants to know more, he can ask. Which I hope he won't do because by the time I get back to my position I have forgotten the details and moved on. I figure the less said to anybody while I'm on the floor, the better. Helps prevent athletes tounge.

I feel my partner's approach is wrong. These are HS aged players and what he does smells like coaching to me. I overheard one of the coaches saying to his player about one of these exchanges, "That's nice, too bad he isn't the coach."

But he's been at this a lot longer than I have, and perhaps I just don't get it. He handles coaches much better than I do, so I am interested in learning from his people skills. Is it just a matter of style? Am I wrong to be so business-like about it all? Or am I right to think that I definitely DON'T want to emulate this particular style.