Was I in the wrong here?

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by ConnorOSU

This is my third year officiating for CYO (Catholic Youth Organization, 3rd-8th grade), and I am a senior in high school. The majority of our officials are in high school, and we have adult officials for the big/older games. So here's the situation:

Both teams (seventh grade boys) are playing a competitive game but Team A comes out in the second half with an aggressive but clean trap. This completely flusters Team B and they quickly go down ten points. When they do manages to break the trap the kids go up for layups and throw themselves on the floor without any contact and expect a foul to be called. Neither my partner or I give them the call, and soon the crowd is getting out of hand.

In between the third and fourth quarters I go over towards the bleachers to get ready to put the ball in play. This is when one of the fans of Team B asks my name. I give it to him, and because I'm a bit of a smartass, give him the name and number of my supervisor as well. I'm smiling while doing this, and another fan tells me that smiling while officiating is unprofessional and to stop before he wipes it off my face. I'm debating having him ejected for threatening me but I decide to just tough out the final quarter. After all, I'm a skinny 17 year old, and while I enjoy being a smartass, actually ejecting a 300 pound samoan father scares the hell out of me.

So my question is, was I out of line smiling at the fans of a losing team? I've seen other officials in CYO (adult, veteran ones), smile at funny sequences during a game or if a fan says something so wrong it's funny. And in addition, our supervisor tells the younger refs to have fun while also keeping control of the situation. I think I did that.

Sorry for the length, and thanks for your opinions.

Connor:

First, welcome to the Forum. It is great to see young people joining our avocation.

Second. There is nothing wrong with smiling when doing something you enjoy including officiating. You are young and going to make mistakes and will learn from your mistakes. One of the biggest thing that any official can do is interact with hostile spectators, see the following thread: T on parents?.

Regarding your particular situation, I would have stopped the game, met with your partner, and notified the site manager of the threat made by the 300 lbm parent.

Don't let your game today discourage you from continuing to officiate. Please continue to come to the Forum and also search out veteran officials for mentoring.

MTD, Sr.


P.S. I hope the OSU stands for The Ohio State University, and not those two other imposters.