I Liked the Way You Handled That Parent!

"I liked the way you handled that parent! " So said another parent to me prior to the start of Refereeing my 3rd of 4 girls Freshman Basketball Game of the night in a Summer League. "Freshman" really means just graduated from the 8th grade, so the skill level is not the highest order just yet…

Evidently this particular parent was sitting on the sideline of my 2nd game near another parent that was making an annoying habit of constantly complaining about Ref calls. During a timeout in the 3rd Quarter I was near the sidelines where this annoying parent was sitting and asked, "Is there enough room for me or my partner to sit next to you for the rest the game? "

"Why do you want to do that?" Was the question.

Image by COD Newsroom via Flickr

"Well, you disagree with every call we've made tonight, so I figure either me or my partner needs to sit by you so we can see the same game you're seeing because you must have a better view of it from here then we do on the court! “

The response was, "I just want you to call it both ways! “

(Ironically, we had called MORE fouls on the other team at this point in the game.)

So I said, "Are you biased for the white team? Yes, I think YOU are biased, aren't you? And that's the real problem here! "

The other parent who said, "I like the way you handled that parent " also commented the other parent was really irritating and was about to make a comment when I stepped over. "Good thing you came over and said what you said because I was about to get myself into trouble telling that parent to please just shut up!"

Nice to know some parents do appreciate Referees trying to keep the more obnoxious parents under control……