Next match after my Part I post. Again, a middle school (7th & 8th grade) match. When my partner begins by telling me he's been doing this since 1970, I cringe. I KNOW what's going to happen. He wants me to be up for the first (7th grade) match. Right before we're about to start, he tells me that he doesn't understand why we don't make the teams line up at the end line in the proper serving order prior to being beckoned on to the court. I just shrug my shoulders, smile, and go up the stand. S team is out first and lined up ready to go. R team is a little slower, but they come out also and quickly line up and I blow my whistle as I look back to the S team. I should have been prepared for what's about to happen, but somehow I'm still surprised to find him assembling the S team on the end line...in proper serving order of course.
During the match, he is whistling every down ball, even those that have not hit the ground yet. Not only is he blowing his whistle on every play, but more often than not he's beating me to it. What made it worse was that IMO half of the plays were not over when he was blowing his whistle. It maybe would have been not so completely horrendous except that...
In the second set, at the conclusion of a point won by S team, I notice R coach asking R2 about something. I'm able to determine that she thinks the S foot faulted. Of course I'm watching for that and the S wasn't even close to the line. I signal for the next serve, and we actually have a point where the teams volley the ball back and forth over the net a few times. Suddenly, R2's whistle brings the play to a halt. The only thing he signals is for a reserve. S team coach wants to know why (and so do I), so I call R2 over to ask him why we are doing a reserve. He tells me that there was a foot fault.
I tell him that it is my responsibility to watch the server and that there was no foot fault, and we are not going to be blowing the whistle in the middle of a play to rule on something that happened at the beginning of the point. He then tells me that there were 4 hits. I can't believe what he's telling me. There was nothing even remotely close to 4 hits. I tell him I had a good count throughout the point and that neither team had 4 hits. Later on in that match he calls a foot fault...at least at the correct time. Only I was watching and the S didn't foot fault.
Somehow we make it through the match.
Second match now. Partner signals teams together while standing on the court. I check R team, turn around, and this time I am prepared for R1 standing on the court, rearranging S team players.
I'm wondering if maybe I just haven't looked in the mirror lately to find that someone has stamped a big "STUPID" on my forehead. I let him do what he wants.
As fast as my partner's whistle was as R2, it's that much slower as R1. Balls would hit the ground, I'm looking up at him...waiting...waiting...waiting...finally his whistle would blow and he would give his signal. To top it off, there is an OBVIOUS 4 hits by one of the teams, where everybody in the gym knows it. Except for my partner of course. When the 4th hit occured I gave him a signal, but he's not looking for my help. Coach of the opposite team is wanting 4 hits called, and I'm beginning to thump my chest trying to get his attention, but the ball crosses the net a couple of more times before he realizes that there's a commotion going on throughout the gym. He blows his whistle and then finally sees the signal that I still have in my chest. As we near the end I find myself reciting the BB officials' mantra on a night like this "Get in, get it done, get out."
Mon Sep 15, 2008, 12:25pm
That's my whistle -- and I'm sticking to it!
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