Melton07

Congrats to all the folks receiveing accolades in '7A'. Good luck in the post season.

Good luck to all the officials during the upcoming postseason. Remember, work your primary hard, go get one out of your primary only if it's 110% and it will help your game and most importantly HAVE FUN !

Nice job by the 'crew' in the Monterey vs Pickett game. Solid job guys, keep up the good work.

Rule of thumb for officials during an 'injury situation' - get the heck away from the coaches and injured players. It a great opportunity for a Coach to throw a 'shot' at the officials. If the officials would move away from the injury, while still watching the remaining players on the court, you don't have this sort of coach/official interaction regarding the injured player(s). Also for all officials, never, ever, ever touch an injured player. As tempting it may be to want to help, removing yourself from the situation is the appropraite thing to do. Is baiting a coach to get a response ever a good thing to do ????? Nope

Bill, I have not seen the play that you describe yet. I am hoping to get an opportuity to check out the tape. I will say this, if a Coach is as far on to the court as I suspect he was and he was jawing at the official reporting the time out, I can see the official ringing him up. Albeit, it came at a very bad time for the team. It goes back to communication and people skills. If the coach wanted to ask the official about a play, why not ask the official to come over so that you can speak with him (in the team area). Going near midcourt, chewing on an official in front of a big crowd, in a game that you are leading is probablly not the best idea. It does not give the official much of a choice. Regarding your question, once you give a technical foul for any type of judgement, its probablly going to rseult in free throws. In the situation you describe, I'm not going to go over to my partner and ask him if he is sure he wants to give the coach a technical foul because if we take it away, now we are going to have to give the other coach a technical because hes going to go nuts after we tell him we changed our minds, "it wasn't really as bad as it looked coach so we changed our minds" . Hope this helps.

Two people watched the same game and had different reports of the officials, one says good, the other says bad. Officiating is a very subjective art. What might be good to one eye can be different for another depending on the 'philosophy' of the person watching the game. Good reports guys, keep them coming. Also let us know if you had any unusual plays during your game.

Dragon, did the officials take any time off the clock ?

Excellent point Coach !! Our philosophy is that each game you work is the most important game in the state that night, because its the most important game to the kids at all levels of play. While working a 'premeir' game is easier to bring your 'A game' you must be mentally prepared each night you step on the court to bring your best effort regardless of your assigned game. The kids and coaches work too hard for you to 'loligag' and only give minimal effort.

Bill, you are entitled to your opinion regarding the officiating just like I am entitiled to my opinion about the school administration not 'handling their business' You and I are the same in that 'we call them like we see them'. I'm off the subject, moving on.

Devilish, come on - keep the bling comments in your other thread if you don't mind. We have gotten lots of good input in this thread from fans, coaches and officials, lets try to stay on topic. Regarding your comment on the officiating being "terrible". Can you tell us when was the last time you went to an officiating camp, picked up a rule book, or worked in a three man crew ? Can you tell us what the terms Lead, Center and Trail mean? Can you tell us what POI or POV mean? In all due respect, while everyone is entitled to their own oppinion, until you take up the craft and learn the game from inside the lines, your credibility as it relates to evaluation of officials does not mean much to the officiating community.

Devilish, I am very open minded, it just seems like we (not just you) are always looking to lay the blame at someone elses feet instead of 'maning' up to our own actions. This is a kids game and behavior of this type can not be tolerated. Officials responsibility : Control of the game = YES Control of the crowd = NO The crowd is the responsibility of game management - at this particular contest, the game management did a very poor job of taking care of the situation. This 'incedent' has been reported and in the hands of the state office. This particular school was walking on thin ice already due to situations that I have already posted. Should be interesting to see what the reprecussions will be.

Suggesting that its the officials fault that their was an altercation within the gym or outside is rediculous. I guess its their fault that the popcorn was too salty too !!! /popcorneater.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":popcorneater:" border="0" alt="popcorneater.gif" />

Dragonmaster, a travelling violation is the hardest part of the game to officiate and most missed (both calling/not calling) IMO. You have so much going on from the hips up (contact) that its hard to focus on the feet sometimes. To answer your question, I would just have to see the play in order to comment on if it is indeed a violation. I will say this, just because a play 'looks funny' does not necessarily mean that its a travel. Keep this in mind a travel is not a travel until the pivot foot is picked up AND put back down. Also, (and I hear more fans screaming about this play) - a player MUST BE IN CONTROL of the ball in order for a travel to occur. NO CONTROL = NO VIOLATION

Bill, thanks for your time and input as well. We always have to step back and remember. "Its all about the kids."

I have never claimed that officials don't have any punishment for conduct unbecoming of an official. Addressing coaches, athletic directors, fans and other officials in a manner that is deemed 'unprofessional' is dealt with, but its dealt with internally, usually by loss of assignments. As for several hundered 'small town fans' being right and the crew being wrong - it can happen BUT, until each one of them pick up a rule book, attend rules clinics and UNDERSTAND THE RULES, I'm probablly not going to put a whole lot of emphasis on how a crew is rated by the fans. I'm NOT saying that all fans are unknowledgeable of the game. There are some fans that are students of the game, just like the officials. But the majority of fans have never even picked up a rule book in their entire life. Are officials above the law ?? The answer is NO - but we tend to take care of the matter in house and do not make punishment of an official or a crew public information.

Bill, you can only give a technical to 'bench personel'. Definition of bench personnel = Anyone on the bench (Coaches, substitutes, trainers, statisticians, managers) They are all the responsibility of the head coach. The fans are the responsibility of game management to deal with. The only way you can give a technical on the fans is for throwing anything on to the playing surface.

Bill, your 'assesment' of this crew lacks merit. These guys have lots of credibility with both the coaches and other officials in the area. Believe it or not Bill, these guys have lots of district, region, sectional and state tournament experience. While your oppinion of the crew does not mean much, I appreciate your feedback. Let me ask you this Bill. When is the Upperman administration finally going to get some control over their basketball programs ? In the last year, to my knowledge, they have had fans removed from games, coaches ejected (while the team was out of state and did not self report to the state office), officials followed to their locker room and to their car, altercations with fans and student sections. All of this is just within the last year, Bill. Upperman has lots more to worry about than the officiating in last nights game. Someone over their needs to step up and take control before the 'loose cannons' really hurt someone.

I didn't say that they called a perfect game Mr Basketball. I have yet to see a 'perfectly' played game (no turnovers or missed shots) and I have also never seen an officiating crew that got 100 % of all calls correct (Fouls, violations, etc). Overall, the crew did a nice job of letting the players determine the outcome of both contests.

None of the above. Im just an 'observer' !

NOPE !!! /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" />

Solid effort by the officiating crew. Good job guys !!

WHACK !!! Now maybe you have their attention !! Second one is indirect to the head coach, so he gets to stay but is on his last strike.

Coach, thanks for all you do for the kids ! It is much appreciated by the officiating community. I think you are on to something here and I know that in other states they have one 'local meeting' each year in which all the coaches are encouraged to come. They actually have dinner together and its a good opportunity to 'fellowship' with each other prior to the meeting The problems I can see arise if you have an open forum at these meetings is that it turns in to a gripe session and before you know it, it gets out fo hand. The coach should address the assigning officer/supervisor privately if he has issues with certain official(s). Then follow up with the coach after speaking to the official(s). Publicly blasting a coach or official in a room mixed with coaches and officials could turn very ugly, really quick. But, again I am an advocate for maybe the first local meeting of each season is open to the coaches. Maybe let all of the wives cater it (hahah) Thanks again for your input. Good luck the rest of the year.

Stang, thanks for your interest in the game and wanting to understand the rules better. I will attempt to answer your questions above. 1) Is there a web site that has the rules to read and get yourself familiarized with, even conduct of the ref's? The answer to your question is yes. There are several differnt ways officials study rules. http://www.nfhs.org/web/2006/08/basketball.aspx - this is an excellent web site that you can go and get yourself familiarized with rules and 'case book' studies. I think there is even a place on here that you can order a rule and case book if you would like to have them. I use mine constantly and make notes in the book. I also keep a 'game log' - its my own personal game information book. I keep it to write down information about each game. I make notes of unusual plays that we had during the game, coaching style, team philosophy (do they run, do they like to slow the pace, man to man or zone, full court pressure) I also keep notes on any plays as though I felt like we may have missed. It usually takes about 15 mins after you get back home each night but its a good reference when you get deeper in the season, before you have the team, you can go back and look at what they did earlier in the year and you can be better prepared for what you are getting ready to face. There is a lot of information sharing going on with the officials. They will call each other regarding a play they had in their game to discuss how it was handled and if they handled it appropriately. Officials want to do their very best each night (just like the teams) and they want to learn from their mistakes and each other. In the rule book, there is also an officials 'creed' that talks about your integrity and how officials should administer the rules of the game. Keep in mind, all officals have their own philosophy of how the game should be played, just like the fans do but ultimately, they must enforce the rules that they have been given, even if their philosophy does not line up exactly with the rules. 2) Do they watch films on these games for learning tools for upcoming and standing ref's? Currently their is no program in place for the officials to be able to review game film. Ideally, the school would make three DVD copies of the game and mail it to each official the day following the game. Each official would evaluate themselves and each other and the crew chief would then submit a report to the conference supervisor or observer. This is a 'pipe dream' at this point but film is a very valuable tool for officials to take their game to the next level. Hopefully, at some point, this change will be made. It would cost the school a little money for 'dubbing' and postage but I think that the positives far outweigh the negatives.

FCS1984 - What do you feel could be done to improve the level of officiating in your area ? Are officials not hustling, out of position, not properly addressing the coaches or 'bench decorum' rules ? In other words, where do you feel there is the most room for improvement ? I am assuming that you are a fan of FCS (by your name). Have you attended any games this year that your team was not involved in ? If so, do you remember how you felt as though the officials did in that particular game. It has been my experience that your loyalty to a team can sometimes 'haze' your perception of the officiating crew. I'm intrested to hear your comments. Also, nice job by the crew in handling the fan situation the way they did.