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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She Was Almost Over the Line, Ref!

I was working a Holiday Girl's High School Tournament.

Visiting team is bringing the ball from the Back Court after In-bounding following the Home Team making a basket.

A team is allowed 10 seconds to get the ball over the Mid Court Line. It's a really easy call to make... Count to 10 seconds and if the ball is still on the Back Court side of the line, toot the whistle and give the Violation Mechanic.

Image by Todd Blosser via Flickr

As usual, I made me Visible 10 Second Count. I got to 10 Seconds, allowed another 1/2 seconds or so- just to be sure my count was not too fast- then I sounded my whistle and gave the Ten Second Violation signal.

A Visiting Team parent hollers out in disgust, "Oh, come on Ref!! She was almost over the line!"

It's a moments like this I wonder if that same parent would have the same opinion if I did NOT call a 10 Second Violation on the opposing tram in a similar situation?

Surely that fan would holler out, "Oh, come on Ref!! She was almost over the line!" Don't ya think?

No, I don't think so either......and THAT sort of bias is why fans & coaches do not Referee the games.

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Leave the Kids Who are Helping ALONE!

I Refereed my first Matches of the season last nite and I am quite happy to be mailing out letters to the Principal's of BOTH schools complimenting their JV and Varsity Coaches for excellent sportsmanship!

Do THE fans have the guts to Referee?

Despite EXCELLENT sportsmanship from the players and the coaches in most Girl's Varsity Volleyball Matches there are occasionally parents who want to Referee the game...... from their safe perch in the stands. I doubt many of them have the guts to actually be on the floor and Referee! Few people do.

Oh, it's pretty easy to Ref from the stands, but when you put on a Referee shirt & hang a whistle around the neck and realize there are numerous half crazed fans ready to challenge every call you make there are few folks willing to take on that responsibility.

In one Match a parent was hollering at one of the High School aged Line Judges when he disagreed with some of her calls.

Look folks, the AIA (Arizona Interscholastic Association) sends 2 Referees to each match. As a cost saving measure preferred by the schools who pay for the Referees, the AIA does NOT send paid Line Judges to Regular Season Matches.

So High School kids end up volunteering, or more likely, BEING volunteered by their Coaches, to do the Line Judging.

(My Grand Daughter all dressed out to Ref a Volleyball Match)

In a Varsity Match the Line Judges are usually JV Players, Freshman or Sophomores. many of which do not really want to be the Line Judge!!

It is NOT as easy as it looks from the stands. I know! I have done some line Judging in Post Seasons Play Off Matches.

This particular parent thought that he was being funny to holler, "Are you blind!?" at a Line Judge who had called a ball "IN" that, in his over inflated judgement, he thought was "OUT." From my perspective on the Referee Stand the ball was "IN."

Fans can holler at us adult Referees, up to a limit, if they want. But I ain't gonna let fans holler at the kids who do Line Judging.

So I asked the attending Athletic Director to speak to the fan with 3 choices-

1. Cheer for his team and stop yelling at the Line Judges.

2. Step onto the floor and take the Line Judge spot.

3. Yell one more time at the Line Judge and he would be ejected from the gym.

Since he was with the Visiting Team, and had traveled almost 3 hours to the game, he wisely decided to focus on cheering and not take the Line Judge spot.

So, come and cheer for your schools as loud and raucously as your want. You can take your chances and yell at the Ref's, too. Some Refs have less tolerance for that than others and you never know walking in the door if the Ref for that Match has a short fuse or not......

But leave the kids who are helping do Line Judging alone!

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