A Simple Tutorial for Referees in Ringwood

My First Technical

This is not the ref. This guy is pro!

We go to Ringwood for a game. Ringwood has a rep for homer refs.

I guess when the refs blew the first possession call and SoulSlam made them aware they messed up was where it all got started. Then when they blew another possession call (it's pretty easy, team 1, team 2, team 1, team 2) they looked at me funny.

It seemed that a ref (with 80's hair) was trying to get my best player out of the game, with two sketchy fouls, including a charge that wasn't. Then he calls the kid for a travel on a made layup. I don't argue a travel, he probably took 3 steps. But a couple of minutes later one of their players took 5 (if I drew a diagram from where he started and where he finished Lebron James would take 3.5) steps with the ball on his hip and didn't get called I kind of started in...at that point my Asst. Coach asked the ref if he "lived down the street". We get warned.

So game resumes...with about 2 minutes to go we are up 31-28. They inbound, I press with one guard. The kid dribbles with 2 hands for 3 steps and no call!!!! The opposing coach called a T/O...I look at ref and motion with two hands and say he can't do that!

T!!!!

So they get two free throws... ref lines the kid on wrong basket. We say "wrong basket" I think he wanted to call another T. He gets red-faced. Kid makes second shot after air-balling first. Now they get the ball back...but wait, the refs aren't sure where they get ball. I say down under basket in corner. What are they going to do...I'm trying to be helpful.

Ringwood inbounds ball and we immediately get our hands on it too and force a possession....ref #2 looks longingly at 80's ref....wait, wait, wait.... BLUE ball (me). They wanted to give that ball so bad to Ringwood, you should have seen their faces. Priceless. We scored 2 more times to win 35-29.

Terrible refs, not carded (you can tell by patches on striped shirt)...I am having my league rep blacklist these guys.

On Another Note

Got some frantic texts last night from people in our basketball program - "Scoreboard having issues!". Besides everything else I also fix the scoreboard. Somebody's gotta...

I had planned on replacing the basketball nets this morning anyway; the guy who runs basketball (who is a good friend of mine) may be the cheapest human on the planet. At the beginning of the season I told him to go get some nets as the old ones were falling apart. He came back with some cheap-charlies that are falling apart. So i went and got the good stuff. Like it should.

Fixed all that needed to be fixed before games start at 9AM...lots of wide-eyed coaches showing up...no idea what to do or anything else, but hey thanks for the help. I stopped down in the afternoon to check on things after I took the Sons of SoulSlam to the hitting cages for some work. While sitting at our awesome scorer's table (we don't scrimp) the coach on one side (who is more like a head lineup writer, BTW his kid plays hoops for me) came over and the exchange went like this:

HIM: "can I ask you something"
ME: "Sure"
HIM: "how do you get the parents on the side to stop coaching from the sidelines?"
ME: "I thought that's what all of you do!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

I then went on to tell him that at my first practice every season I tell the kids that if they want to listen to mommy & daddy and not me, then they should go play on mommy & daddy's team. Easy.

Oil Change

I sold my baseball van a couple of months back...now driving a 2005 Chevy Tahoe. Needed an oil change today. So we go to Pep Boys, get the goods and get to work. Done like Gomer. Smooth ride. I like.

1/3

Today my travel team played it's 10th game...that's 1/3 of the regular season (in two leagues). Won a big one against a team we haven't played well against in past. Final was 54-31. I love when the opposing coach has no idea what to do, say or think.

AWESOME!

Can't count our chickens though. Gotta keep up the pressure and make a run for the ages. We play three games Monday through Sunday. All winnable. We see what we are.

Rice Therapy

My iPhone is sitting in a bag of Uncle Ben's. I have a fogged up lens on my camera and I'm trying to draw the moisture out.

All my picture look like close-ups of Meryl Streep.

Hoops Jedis

My travel team (6th grade boys) has started the season at 6-0. That matches our wins total from last season (which included a forfeit). Not always pretty. Not always smooth. But they come from behind, they come from all sides.

Face the toughest opponent of early season tonight. Went 1-1 against them last year. I know we can't go undefeated in a 30 game schedule, but I can dream...