Halloween Nite At The HS Volleyball Match

200 students showed up last night for "Senior Nite" and the last Volleyball Home Game of the season on Halloween nite.

At least half were in costume......

Image by Katie Morrow via Flickr.com

The funniest to me, was a kid in black shoes, black pants, dark sunglasses & a "blind person's cane"...... and a black & white Referee shirt.

He was "escorted" into the gym by a kid dressed as a slice of Pumpkin Pie holding the Blind Ref's elbow, typical of escorting a blind person. Very clever histrionics, indeed!

One of the really fun things about Refereeing High School Sports is the Student Section antics, Basketball and Volleyball puts the kids almost right on the court!

They can really be entertaining and crazy!!

Occasionally they can get a bit out of line (like at this basketball game) and someone needs to be invited to leave ("Tossed" in more vernacular terms).

Can you guess which student I would have "tossed" first if that Student Section had gotten out of control............? Yeah & the Pumpkin Pie would not have been far behind!

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Coach, It's YOUR Student Section....

I was Refereeing a Girl's Varsity Volleyball Match when some kids in the Student Section decided it would be fun to start calling out opposing team players by their uniform number while making specific and unkind comments.

The Rules do not allow that and I am not gonna allow it.

The school Athletic Director was not present. Neither was a school Administrator. Only a fellow in a yellow shirt emblazoned "SECURITY," So I called over the Security fellow- who was standing about 20' from the offending students and doing nothing about it-  and asked him to stand with the Student Section and calm them down.

This process, of course, takes some time.

In the meantime, the Home Team Coach complains to me, "Can't we just get the Match started again?!"

"UTPA Volleyball 1 by Reynaldo Leal" by thepanamerican via Flickr

"Yep, Coach we can. However, it's YOUR Student Section causing the problem and we aren't restarting until they are under control. As soon as they settle down we can restart the Match."

Want to get a Red Card in Volleyball or "T'd' Up" in Basketball by me? Just start making a fuss about a game delay when it's your students or fans that are out of control......YOUR school is responsible for fan behavior control!!

I'm rather certain this isn't the first time this Student Section has gotten out of line. Some school Student Sections just don't know how to behave and I am constantly chagrined that schools see and tolerate behavior- sometimes even smile & are amused by behavior- from THEIR students at Home Games that I am sure they would object to if they were Visitors......

On the other hand, some Student Sections are outrageously hilarious in their antics and make the games & matches more fun for everyone. I applaud them in that effort.

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