What Are You Gonna Do, Ref? Throw Me Out?

I am not a psychiatrist and do not pretend to know why some fans act in such outrageous ways that they even embarrass fans from their own teams, but some just seem not to be able to contain themselves......

I try very hard NOT to eject fans. They paid for their tickets & I figure they ought to be able to stay and watch their kid play......so long as the are reasonably well behaved. One nite, walking to my car after we'd ejected 3 fans from the Home Team, a lady walked past me whose kid played on the Home Team and said, "Thanks for ejecting those morons. They act like that every game and just embarrass the rest of us. The school doesn't do anything about their behavior and we wish more Refs would eject them!"

Tonite we had 3 men sitting together that seemed to be feeding off each other trying to out do each other in Refereeing from the stands and making outlandish comments while our backs were turned to the crowd. (Interestingly, the most obnoxious fans rarely make comments when the Referee is looking in their direction. Imagine that! Being anonymous, the the Referee that is, seems to be their shield of invincibility.)

Anyway, these 3 fellows had pushed things well beyond reason. Rather than confront them directly and feed their egos, during the Time Out, I stepped to the Athletic Director and asked her to chat with the 3 fellows and please caution them to be more respectful in their comments as we did NOT want to have to eject anyone. They were welcome to have fun cheering for their team but the obnoxious comments needed to be curtailed. She knew exactly which fellows I meant......

The AD did speak to the 3 as I'd requested.

Image by K.M. Klemencic via Flickr.com

As fate would have it following the Time Out, I then was in-bounding the ball right infront of them when one hollered out in a most sarcastic manner, "What are you gonna do, Ref? Throw me out?"

Since my back was to the stands I could not tell who'd said that, so I had to turn and asked in general, "Who said that?" The culprit proudly said, "I did. What are you gonna do?"

I replied, "I'm going to grant your request. You may leave now."

He was stunned, looked at the AD who nodded her head and pointed toward the exit. I think she'd done that before with this fellow......

Interesting that I never heard another word from the other 2 fellows the rest of the nite......

Refereeing can be such interesting entertainment......

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Calling the 3 Second Rule in Basketball

Last year I Refereed 6 games in the Arizona Nike High School Basketball Tournament of Champions.

Lots of fun & some outstanding basketball play by the kids and one dad that cracked me up......

All thru the 1st half of a game this fellow kept counting- "one, Two, THree, FOUr, FIVE!!". Getting louder at each number count. That would be followed by him yelling, "Call the 3 Seconds, Ref!!"

Image by K. M. Klemencic via Flickr.com

During a Time Out I was standing near the fellow and took the risk of asking him what "3 Seconds Call" he was hollering about.

"You don't even know the 3 Seconds Rule!" He stated quite animatedly.

So I asked him to explain what he was so upset about.

"You're letting them stand in the key for 5 & 6 seconds. They're not allowed to do that!" Was the reply.

I asked, "What do you mean by 'Them'?"

"The other team!!" He bellowed.

"Sir, to me they are BOTH the 'other team'. Which 'other team' do you mean?"

"The ones in blue!"

I looked at the court and said, "You mean the Blue team at THIS end of the court?"

"Yes, are you blind AND stupid!? You don't even know what 3 Seconds is!!"

By now several other spectators in the immediate area were listing closely.

My reply was simple. "Sir, the team in Blue is on Defense at this end of the court. The "3 Seconds Rule" only applies to the team on Offense. The Blue Team can stand in the key as long as they want with no penalty."

"You're really an idiot, Ref!" He hollered.

The surrounding fans burst out laughing at this, which he interpreted as being the fans agreeing I was an idiot, not realizing they were laughing at him.

I could see the futility of continuing the discussion with him, blew my whistle and waved for the teams to come back on the floor to continue the game.

Now, I will readily admit us Ref's sometimes make mistakes, but if you're gonna yell at a Ref about a RULE, make sure you know the rule first!!

By contrast, we had a rebounding play in another game while I was near the coach on the sidelines. It appeared from where we were standing, BEHIND the play, that an opposing player might have gone "Over the Back" of his player. He turned to me and asked, :"Where's the Over the Back call?" I looked at him and said, "From where we are looking from you & I just don't know for sure. maybe it was, maybe it wasn't and sometime we just plain miss a call. But I'm not gonna call something unless I'm confident I'm making the right call."

He started chuckling and said, "I can accept that answer!" And that was the last I heard from him the rest of the game.

Refereeing is great fun!

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What About the 2 Step Rule, Ref!!??

I had arrived early to watch the JV Games Refs and file and "Observation Report" as Varsity Referees are asked to do thru out the season to help Non-Varsity Refs know what they can do to improve to become Varsity Referees.

I walked in during the 1st Quarter and there was only 1 Ref. he was standing along on the sidelines & I asked, "Are you working alone?"

"Yeah, I don't know what happened to my assigned Partner!"

"Ok. I'll get dress and help you out." I said.

So I worked 3 Quarters of the JV game and then the Varsity game went to Overtime. WHAT A NITE.......! In the Varsity game we "T'd UP" a Head Coach, "T'd Up" a player and ejected a Fan from the Visiting School. Won't they be excited to find out my partner & I are working their game next week, too.......

But back to the JV Game...... I called traveling on a player. The JV Head Coach hollered out, "What about the 2 Step Rule, Ref?"

Image by K. M. Klemencic via Flickr

I asked, "What 2 Step Rule?"

"You know, Ref, the Dribbler gets 2 steps after they stop dribbling! You gotta give my Player's their 2 steps!"

"Coach, I think you are confusing NBA Rules with High School Rules. There is NO "2 Step Rule" in High School Basketball."

He shook his head like I was the crazy one and sat down mumbling to himself.

With a Coach attitude like his and lack of Rules knowledge, I was not surprised during the Varsity game to overhead a JV Player say, "These Ref's don't know nothing about the Rules....They are LOUSY Refs!"

As the Commissioner of Officials said in our Pre-Season "Tip Off Meeting" this year, the Coaches do NOT know the Rules......This Coach was an example of that.

I also believe many of the problems with Fans yelling at Referees is THEY are confusing NBA Rules with High School, too.........

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A Cowardly Fan

During the game, if a fan gets too rowdy, the Referee has "tools" to deal with the situation-

1. Ask the School Athletic Director or Security to request the fan to cheer for and support his / her team but calm down on negative comments about the Referees.
2. If that does not work, have the AD or Security escort the unruly fan out of the building. ALL the way out.

BUT WHEN THE GAME IS OVER, so also is the Referee's jurisdiction.

Recently as my partner & I were leaving the gym after dressing into street clothes, just as we stepped thru the double gym doors to the gym lobby a rather large fellow- a Home Team fan since the Visiting Team was already on the bus- stepped behind us and snarled, "You guys are pathetic! Find something else you might be good at!"

With recent stories of Referees being attacked, even killed by angry & out of control fans, that comment rather disturbed me. So I turned immediately to the Security fellow a few steps away, (but too far away to have heard the fan's comments), quickly told him what was said and requested he make sure that fan did not follow us out to our cars in the parking lot......

I refer to him as a cowardly fan because he obviously lacked the courage to make comments about Referees when we could have had him ejected. Instead he waited until after the game and our jurisdiction had ended to sneak up behind us.

Now, I have had fans make snide comments to me as I walked by them after a game. Even had rocks thrown at us- twice. But I have never had a fan walk right up behind me is such a threatening way.

And why was that fan upset with us referees?

I really do not know. The Home Team WON by 20+ points!!

I wonder how he would have acted if they had lost- especially if it had been a close game loss?

And because it was such and odd scenario for a fan to be making untoward comments I asked Security to keep on eye on him. A fella cannot be too careful sometimes these days......

Image by Jeff Kramer via Flickr

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But THAT'S His Shooting Style!

Had a close Basketball game in progress in the late 4th Quarter. A player for the team that was behind by 5 points fired off a Jump Shot from 3 Point range that missed. Just after his feet touched back down on the floor a Defensive Player bumped him hard & the "shooter" fell down.

Image by John Feinberg via Flickr.com

I called the Foul. it was the 7th Foul against the Defense so I awarded the "shooter" a "1 & 1" Free Throw Bonus.

The "shooter's" Coach went livid- "That Foul was on a 3 Point Shot!! He should get 3 Free Throws!!"

"Not so Coach. When the shooter returned to the floor the shot ended and the bump was a Common Foul on a player. The Player was no longer a shooter," I explained. 

Not satisfied, the coach vented, "But that's his shooting style!"

Shooting style? After he touches the floor?

Sometimes I hear a coach or player make such a ribald & spurious claim I have to chuckle to myself and wonder what that person would think if he saw & hear what a ridiculous thing they just said!

I replied, "Coach, whatever "shooting style" he has ended when his feet hit the floor!"

It's really a simple rule and I'm sure the coach knew it. At least I hope he did. Sometimes it's hard to tell if a coach really just does not know a Rule or if he/she is just playing dumb hoping to talk the referee into making a call that favors his / her team......Either way it is unfortunate when a coach tried to argue a call with a Referee when the Coach's claim is so easily seen to be bogus.

Certainly us Referees do blow calls from time to time. Just look at all the new reports last year about blown calls by NFL Referees- guys that are being paid $100,000 - $200,000 per season make mistakes. How can coaches and fans expect a Referee getting paid $55 per game to make perfect calls every time?

And when a Coach improperly argues a good call it just incites players & fans that likely do not even know it was a good call against a Referee that did his / her job correctly.

I will not be sending out any letters complimenting Good Sportsmanship to either school from this game.

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An Unexpected and Much Appreciated Compliment

Usually by the time we are done dressing after Refereeing a game, most of the fans have cleared out.

This week tho, David Dixon & myself had the chance to Referee a Sectional First Round Playoff game at 5:15PM which was followed by another Play Off Game at 7:00PM.

So instead of dressing and leaving, we cleaned up, then dressed in our street clothes and went to watch the 2nd game.

Image by Susanne Jerome via Flickr.com 

As we were sitting in the stands at Half Time of that following game, a fellow I'd never seen before walks up, shakes our hands and says, "You guys worked a great game tonite!" A bit surprised at the unexpected compliment I smiled and asked, "Which team were you rooting for?" He replied, "Neither of them. I just came to watch some Tournament Basketball."

"Well THANKS!" We both said, and I added, "It seemed from the crowd's reaction that the fans for neither team thought we did a good job, so we really appreciate your compliment." (It HAD been a raucous crowd at a "neutral" site. The school Athletic Director & his On Site Security had been quite busy trying to calm down fans from both teams. Multiple lead changes, a 2 point margin at half time and the game winning basket was scored with 2.8 seconds on the clock for a 1 point win in a VERY intensely played game! Indeed it was a GREAT game to work!)

The fellow stopped, turned back and said, "I've seen a lot of High School Basketball Referees work over the years. Forget about the fans. You guys ARE good!"

He never said who he was or what his experience with Refereeing was. He just turned back around and walked back to his seat, which turned out to be clear on the far side of the gym and in the upper level from where we were siting. So his coming to compliment us was not just a matter of passing by us on the way to the Concession Stand at Half Time. It was a deliberate effort to speak to us and required some effort on his part.

Fan comments, pro and con, after a game are common. But the way this fellow spoke- in particular saying, "I've seen a lot of Referees WORK," was a very interesting comment.

Fans will say "you 'Reffed' or 'Refereed' a good game," but fans do not say "worked."

"Worked a game," is a phrase common to Referees, tho. Perhaps that fellow was a former referee himself?

So we have no idea who this fellow was or what prompted him to make the trek clear across the gym to compliment a couple of relatively nondescript Referees he'd never seen, but we certainly do appreciate his doing it. Definitely takes the sting out of a coach recently saying we were the worst referees he'd ever seen!!! (I think that coach might have been a bit biased, tho......)

A couple more Play Off games to "work" before the season ends for us and we are looking forward to more intensely contested games and lots of fun "working" them!

2/10/15

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Maybe It Is A Silly Rule

The Referees do not write the Rules......BUT we are expected to apply them correctly, even if some Rules do seem silly to Coaches, Fans & Players.

They may even seem silly to the Refs but that is not their problem.

No Referee likes to start the game out by having to tell players they are wearing illegal uniforms items or apparel.

So please do not make a big fuss when the Referee simply asks players & Coaches to follow the Rules.

Some examples-
There are very specific Rules about Leg & Arm Sleeves & Head Bands in High School Basketball. Only certain colors are allowed:

• White, Black, Beige OR the dominate color of the Team Uniform

• If more than 1 player wears leggings, sleeves, etc they ALL have to be the same color.

• Headbands cannot have extensions, no matter how stylish they may be!!

• An undershirt must match the dominant color of the Jersey.

• NO jewelry- Nose rings, ear rings, bracelets (even plastic), necklaces, ect.

Maybe they can wear that stuff in the NBA, but NOT in High School......

Every year for the first 3 weeks of the regular High School Basketball Season my partner and I are have to inform Coaches and Players they are wearing illegal stuff. At almost every game.

How can that be!?

Have other Referees been ignoring these uniform violations? I hope not!

Are these players & Coaches thinking, "Hey, maybe these Refs will be "cool" and not enforce the Rules or not notice the illegal stuff?"

I don't know.

But please do not roll your eyes or holler out inane babble about how the Refs should "watch the game and not worry about how the players are dressed." How the players are dressed IS part of the Referee watching the game.

We are just doing our job. Hopefully Players, Coaches and parents can catch on and do their jobs getting their players properly attired for their games so the Refs do not have to be "The Bad Guys" and can actually focus on the game itself!!

Image by Daniel X. O'Neil via Flickr.com

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