Miscellaneous Questions

[refnrev]

We all have had partners like the one you describe. In basketball we always stress the pre-game. That's the ideal time to address things, but not much can prepare you for what you describe. I ALWAYS tell the U to call anything that I miss. We're a team and need to work as such.
Now, having said that, I didn't do that once. I walked into the gym and saw who who my partner was. I hadn't worked with him, but his reputation for incompetence in every sport proceeded him. He is hands down the worst official I ever worked with... and he is terrible in every sport. He has actually been told by many schools, even Jr. High Schools, they could no longer use him any more... and that was in baseball and basketball, too. The night we worked together he looked the wrong way on every serve, watched the ball when he should have been watching the net, called a foot fault on a serve from the floor.... which he was notorious for even when they were not even close. He always argued that he was doing fine when partners tried to help him out on these things. So.... what do you do? You get in, call the games, shake hands, and say good-bye afterwards, and get out. Some nights that's all you can do. And PRAY HARD that you don't work together again, but if you have to, make the best of a bad night and look forward to your next match. When I coached soccer, I could always tell when one official was good andone was incompetent. Most coaches will see that, too.
Finally, if you are 2000% sure of an obvious ball handling I'd call it... but don't expect a bad partner to like it very much.

[MCBear]

refnrev, like basketball, we do stress the importance of a prematch conference, but we also want to have a post-match debrief so that we can talk about things that happened. This year, all of the rules making bodies are emphasizing professionalism in their rules presentations. Part of being a professional is acting like one and, in the sport of volleyball particularly, talking with each other prior to the match so you know what you are going to do and then, again, after the match so that you can talk about what you did.

I am sorry that you had to endure that particular individual! One thing that might be done is to contact the assigner/league commissioner/AD and report the ineptitude of the individual and just flat out let them know that you do not want to work with this particular person. You can also contact your state association and report his ineptitude to the person responsible for officials in volleyball. There have been instances where state associations have rescinded the officiating permit of incompetent officials.

Good job (as always), Felix!

[refnrev]

MCB,
I agree with what you say 150% and under normal circumstances the post game is a very good thing. But only for people who want to improve. What B'bob said was that his partner was not interested in a "post game pow-wow" so there really isn't much that he can do. And in my case, you can't talk to a fence post. This guy threw a fit when two well seasoned officials waved off his foot fault calls from the floor in previous games in the season, and ignored their attempts to tell him that he was doing everythng backwards and watching the wrong things. So I have better things to do than argue with an idiot! I did tell the AD at the school where we worked, who happened to be my former asst soccer coach, never to call him again. I rarely see this kind of incompetence in V'ball or soccer, but have encountered it in basketball on a few occasions. If you have someone who doesn't want to get better and won't listen, in basketball we just have an understanding that we get in, get the games done, get out, and look forward to the next night.