Ref's Can't See Anything

A player lost a Contact Lens in a Pre-Season Scrimmage. Naturally everything came to a halt as players & coaches searched for the missing lens......except me and my Referee Partner.

A fan sitting close by us asked, "How come you Ref's aren't helping look for the Contact Lens?"

I turned around & quipped, "No one ever asks us to help look for Contact Lenses. You all know us Ref's can't see anything!"

The fan got a good laugh out of that!

Image by Ken Teegardin via www.AssistedSeniorLiving.net

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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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The DEAF and DUMB Referee Last Nite....

There was a deaf and dumb referee last night.

My partner last night literally was deaf and dumb. He had only about 15% hearing and 15% speech capabilities. And he was on the court refereeing a girls varsity basketball game!!

"Blind Ref" by Nathan Rupert via Flickr

And he did a mighty fine job of it, too! The referee mechanics have to be adjusted a bit since he cannot call out team colors for foul calls or out of bounds plays, etc. And the coaches could not yak at him as he ran up and down the sidelines. (Actually that's a real blessing for him!!)

I explained his situation to the Coaches, Score Keeper and Clock operator before the game started so they were all set to accommodate some unorthodox communications from him for foul reporting and we had no problems there.

Though the most common complaint from fans usually is us Refs are blind rather than our hearing and speech capabilities.

Anytime a coach has a question about a call my partner made, the coach had to holler at me, expresses concern to me and then I had to try to communicate the coaches concern to my partner and he had to try and describe what he saw. It took a little while to accomplish that and pretty soon the coaches just quit asking!! Return next line.  Delete that?

The most interesting thing about it was that I do not think the fans even realized he was deaf and dumb!! And that is a real accomplishment!!

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How NOT to Talk to a Referee

"Dream Shot" by Will Folsom via Flickr

Us Referees may be blind, it seems to some, but I assure you we are not deaf.

Yeah, we hear all the crazy stuff fans yell from the stands and then chuckle over the craziest stuff we hear during breaks in the game and at half time.

Like the folks that count out, "One, Two, Three, FOUR, FIVE, SIX. Ref aren't you ever going to call 3 Seconds!" When it is the DEFENSIVE team in the Key Area......

I submit to you, tho, IF-

Your child/ player tends to be a bit brutish, shoves people around & bulls their was thru people & attempts to drive to the basket, knocking over 2 defenders who established legal guarding positions, and in the process of falling to the floor themselves is accidentally whacked in the nose by one of the other players falling down......

And IF you come onto the court to check on your child, who is sitting on the floor after the collision they caused......

 And IF your child asks, "Why didn't the Ref call a Foul on the player that hit me in the nose......"

And If, while the Referee is standing next to you also checking to see if your child/player is OK, you reply, "I don't know. The Ref's are stupid!"

Don't not be surprised when you get the "Old Heave- Ho" and are invited to leave the premises.

That is one example of how NOT to talk to a Referee!

We tolerate a lot of abusive comments from the fans but we do have our limits......

We may be blind be we are NOT deaf.

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