Respect can and does go a LONG way
in any environment, arena or in life itself.
Respect is defined as:
1.
esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person,
a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal
quality or ability. 2. to show regard or
consideration for.
Some say to get respect, you have to give respect. I agree with this cliché, in that if you show
respect for me, I’ll definitely show respect for you…or vice versa.
This weekend’s AAU tournament, 7 games on Saturday. 10 total hours in the gym….nothing but total respect
for all players, coaches and parents/fans…not a single issue! (to good to be
true you ask? I guess I jinxed myself for even thinking it could happen two
days in a row).
Sunday rolls around(6 games on the schedule), and for those
of you who have/do officiate AAU tournaments, you know that Sunday is championship tournament play…and it
seems like someone purposely puts SOMETHING in the water, because some people tend to lose
their natural mind it seems!
So here we go……
Sunday’s 2nd contest, a team from a noted urban
area of Michigan is getting ready to play a team from
a suburb of a suburb (you get
what I’m saying). The urban team is
loud, boisterous, and I’m sure attempting to intimidate the other team before
the game even starts. The coach of the
team walks by me and my partner and loudly says to her asst. coach ( I’m sure
so we could hear her), “they better
call a good game today”. My partner and I
look at each other as to say “WTH”..…lol
Neither of us looked her way, nor did we say anything in response.
The game begins, and the urban team is pressing, and trying
to create havoc by speeding up the tempo, etc.
My partner and I both call fouls on this team, along with a few
traveling violations, etc. So I’m
running down the court in front of her bench and she loudly says “why yall
calling all of that bull?”. I blow my
whistle, walk over to her bench and here is what took place:
Me: Coach, here’s
how this is going to work today…(she immediately cuts me off)
Coach: I aint even
talkin to you, there’s a game goin on
Me: No game going
on, I stopped this contest for a reason (again she cuts me off)
Coach: go on back out there and do your job (and sucks her teeth...REALLY??)
Me: Again, this is how it’s going to work today…and
you’re going to let me speak and listen to what I have to say, or you are going
to find yourself getting text message updates from the parking lot or wherever…..
Me: I do NOT want
to hear you:
a) Make
another call as if you are officiating this game, OR hear another complaint
about a call… let me do what I do.. (she tries to interrupt me and I put a stop
to that quickly)
b) Do
NOT
let the word “better” come
out of your mouth in respect to what I need to be doing out here again… (you
better call this, you better do that, etc)
c) I’m
going to show you enough respect to allow you to finish coaching your team this
morning, AND you’re going to show me enough respect to officiate this
contest without all of the unnecessary drama
d) Consider
this your one and only warning,
thank you!
The game starts and almost immediately I have to call a foul
on her team…I blow the whistle and look directly at her and report the foul to
the table (seeing if she’s going to act a fool….NOPE, not a peep!).
A few minutes later, two of the girls, one on each team, are
becoming very physical..so I warn both of them to “cease the nonsense and play
basketball ladies”. Not a minute later,
the girl from the urban team throws a punch into the back of the girl…not
thinking I could see her do it. I blow
my whistle and immediately eject her from the game (flagrant technical)…..I walk
over to the coach and explain what happened and why she was ejected.
Coach: (yells angrily): “you gotta toss her too, she foulin
and carrying on”
Me: “what did I tell you earlier about telling me how to do my job?”……BANG…issued
her a Technical.
Game ends with no more drama, and her team wins handily. They walk by my partner and I and don’t say a
word, probably because they had no idea which court their championship game will
be played on J.
Now in all fairness, this same camp/program/organization had
a few different teams in the tournament. Two games later we had their older team, and
the 2 coaches could not have been any more professional
and respectful to us doing our jobs.
It all boils down to respect….. You show respect, you get
respect…..plain and simple!!
No comments:
Post a Comment