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.
Winning IS important. Don't get me wrong. But there has to be some reasonable balance between the Coach or the Parent's desire for victory and the student athlete's health. Recently I was Refereeing an OFF Seasons High School ages league...... A defensive player lost balance and fell backward, thumping her head on the court.
Following the National Federation of High School and the Arizona Interscholastic Association CONCUSSION Protocol Guidelines I instructed the Coach to remove the player from the game. The PLAYER protested saying, "I hit my elbow, not my head." The Coach protested saying, "She hit her Elbow and not her head." I told them both I SAW her head bounce off the floor. She was out of the game until an authorized Medical practitioner could clear her to renter the game. She stayed out the rest of the game.... I reported the possible Concussion to the Referee Coordinator and the League Director right after the game. BUT, she had another game immediately following and, as fate would have it, I was Refereeing that game, too...... Just prior to the start of the game the Referee Coordinator, League Director, Coach AND the Player's mother asked to speak with me. "She says she did not hit her head. Only her elbow," was the claim, again. I reminded the Coordinator & Director of our current National and State Concussion Protocol, saying, "A player will say anything to stay in a game, even that they did not injure something that they DID injure. I am not gonna risk her health for a Summer League Game OR my family's financial status by letting her play without proper Medical release and getting sued later by an attorney for letting her play if it turns out she did have a concussion." The Mother, WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONE MOST INTERESTED IN HER DAUGHTER'S HEALTH, was not happy at all, but the girl was not allowed to play the next game. Why, oh why, would a parent or Coach risk a kid's health for a measly Summer League game?
Image "ouch." by Beth Rankin via Flickr, available and modified under a Creative Commons Attribution License
