When do you get involved in controlling fans
 

Ok first of all I have always left the fans up to the home management, but had a couple of questions about some things that happened recently and just wanting your opinions.

1) "Boys club" doing some cheering, they kept getting very loud when the opposign team was about to start their serve and quieted down to "normal" once the serve was done....my partner walked over and said somethign to them (didnt get a chance to ask what) and they kept their cheering "normal" all the time following that point. Question: Would you ever approach a group of fans to tell them anything?

2) Home AD approached a group of kids that were standing during the games, had a cow bell the whole 9 yards...anyway they were being ok IMO but he approached them about standing in the front row of the bleachers tellling them to either sit, or stand on the bleacher or in the foot area for the 2nd row. I was watching this game as a spectator so I got to hear a lot of fans reactions and they were right to some degree, those kids were not standing any closer to the action than the home team kids feet were that were sitting on the front row in the other section. Granted they were standing, so their upper body was closer, but seemed minor to me. This then got real ugly when the home team was at 24-something and the home fans stood to do the last point clap from the start of the volley, which put the front row kids in the exact same position that the other kids were in that got them talked to ......so finally Question: What does it take for you to ask the home management to "do" something with fans??

I have had kids get off the floor if they were sitting on the floor, reaction time is more, feet tend to get stuck out etc. but had never worried about them standing 8-10 feet from playable area. Also I had never worried about "verbal interference" from kids yelling during the game (with the exception of an "I got it" or "Mine", that has always bothered me :) ) But I am just looking for your thoughts about this.

1) I wouldn't address making noise during serve. There's nothing against it in the rules.

2) When the fans start directing comments specifically to the other team, then I have that stopped. Otherwise, unless they're being abusive, I don't listen to or deal with fans.

Let the fans cheer, even obnoxiously so, as long as they're not hurting anyone, and you ref the game.

1) The only instance where I would have any action taken is if the team that is serving comes to me and says that the fans are making derogatory remarks or harassing the server. At that point, I stop the match momentarily and have Site Management deal with the situation. If that does not help, then I stop the match and will suspend it until the situation is satisfactorily dealt with.

2) If the students have a cowbell, guess what? We are not going to play until it is removed from the premises. This is not USAV ball where drums, cymbals, gongs and triangles are allowed (if you have ever worked a Juniors match with any teams from Puerto Rico, you KNOW exactly what I am talking about!). Artificial noisemakers are prohibited by most State Associations and, as a result, we will not proceed until they are gone.

As far as what it takes for me to get Site Management involved: a specific complaint from the visiting captain; I hear something that is not kosher and need to have it dealt with; or the situation is one that I feel Site Management needs to deal with before it gets bigger and is no longer manageable from a safety standpoint. Hope that is some help.