Irate Coach!

[The_Rookie]

As requested here is the letter with names and schools redacted to protect those involve

Yesterday one of the officials assigned to our game made a critical mistake
that had a huge impact on the outcome of the game. Down by 4 points, we
fouled a player from XYZ HS with 9.4 seconds left. At the time that was
our 9th team foul. The girls line up and the official under the basket
signals for a 1 and 1. the first free throw is missed and one of my player
gets the rebound but the referee under the basket steps onto
the court. The back official blows his whistle. After a
conference it is decided that its a jump ball and based on possession it
was XYZ ball.

I have a huge issue with how this was handled because there was no logic
behind it. One, XYZ did not line up anyone to rebound the ball,
while I had four girls lined up. Second, the mistake made by the referee
should not have given the other team the ball because it was not an
inadvertent whistle made by the official who made the mistake. The back
official blew his whistle because partner was clueless as to what he did.
Not to say it would have been any better but if they shot the free throw
over we don't lose anymore time on the clock. To make things worse, the
official who made the mistake never apologized or explained what happen.
Instead he left it up to his partner.

At stake was the opportunity to win our school's first championship in 34
years. The game was hard fought and being down by 4 with the league's
leading scorer and school's all time three point shooter on my team I liked
our chances especially since we were in the bonus situation with four
timeouts left.

I understand people make mistakes but more time should have been taken to
discuss what happened and the officials should have done what made most
sense and that was to give our team the ball since we got the rebound.

I really think it needs to be examined by senior
members of your Assoc.and discussed because the ruling made last night does
not seem to make sense at all.

Signed Coach Jones
ABC High