I have a bad attitude

[Kevin_K]

So this Saturday I was all set to officiate the semi finals for the county volleyball championships. Both semis are played back to back, with one official up for the first match and their partner down the first match, and then the two officials y switch for the second match. For most parts of the country, county championships mean little, but in New Jersey, they are a big deal because there are so many schools in each county. 

Last night I got a call from my assigner. He said he had to remove me because I am on the "no" list for one of the schools.  Not because of my ability to officiate a volleyball match, but because, according to the athletic director, of a "bad attitude."

This past September I was at this AD's school for a big match with a very talented team. In the first set I heard the student section call out two visiting players by number. In New Jersey, that's a no no because of our sates's position on good sportsmanship. I motioned for the AD to come over to the referee stand because I wanted to let him know what I had heard.

When he came over to the stand he said ,"If you're going to talk to me, you're going to come down off that stand. I'm not talking to you while you are up there." So I did.

I told him what I had heard and he said, "I was over there and didn't hear anything." To which I said, "I didn't say that you did. I did." He replied, "So what do you want me to do?"

I told him that if I heard something like that again, I was going to ask them to leave if the culprit was not found, to which he said, "Do whatever you need to do."

The road team lost the first set and one of their players punched the ball into the floor and it bounced pretty high. Upon seeing that, the AD approached my stand and said (while I was still "up there") and advised me that perhaps I should pay more attention to what was happening on the court more than what was going on in the stands. I said nothing to him. Just stared in disbelief.

I guess I am guilty as charged. No defense allowed. No witnesses like my partner who heard the same thing I did. Not the coach who has indicated in the past that she actually enjoys having me on her matches because I make her team play with better ball handling. Game, set, match. Let the masked man do his job.....

Mrs Kevin_K and I shall now dine at our leisure this Saturday evening in a restaurant to be named later. You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming

 

 

 

[yawetag]

At least your assigner was up-front about it. Many times, you would have been removed with no reason - or some other reason - given.

[Aging_Arbiter]

[The Man in Blue]

I agree with @yawetag, at least the assignor was honest with you.

This is one of my frustrations in the officiating world ... lack of feedback.  In Illinois, coaches are strongly encouraged to go online and rate officials following their contest.  This figures into your “Power Rating” which is a mystical number that is supposed to drive post-season assignments.  

However, as an official we NEVER see this information in any form.  I understand the desire to want this data to be anonymous as a means to encourage coaches to keep providing it.  There are ways to delay the data and aggregate it so it is useful to us as officials.  This could be one of our most valuable tools in becoming better officials.

In this particular case, it was a matter of personal perception.  The problem I have is you were not given any recourse or way to make amends for a personal misunderstanding.

As far as the situation, did you report any of that to your assignor when it occurred?  Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have because it would have hit me as “that was odd” and then I would have moved on without much more thought.

I have a volleyball related question, but I will post that at https://www.refvb.com !  

[yawetag]

 

27 minutes ago, The Man in Blue said:

The problem I have is you were not given any recourse or way to make amends for a personal misunderstanding.

This is a gripe of mine, too. In many situations between officials and site management, there's that misunderstanding of how we act toward others. We have to be direct, sometimes blunt, and often are asking for something "against" the person we're speaking to. There's no easy way to make this situation non-confrontational to the site admin or coach, so they take it as an affront to them. Those times we try to be friendly or casual, it tends to backfire, making the situation worse.

I had a no-doubt retaliation situation a few years ago in baseball, in which a coach rated me poorly after I wouldn't allow his F2 to wear an unsafe mask. They had to use a backup mask from the other team and there were no other issues during the game. While that rating didn't affect me at all (I wasn't even considering post-season play that year), I worried that he did the same for my partner, who was definitely on track for it. The coach was unable to see that I was just doing my job, not even realizing I didn't have to allow him to use the other team's mask (heavily frowned upon in Missouri).

[Kevin_K]

My assigner and I have a very open and Frank relationship. I have never worked for a better supervisor. He understands that volleyball is a distant second to either my job or my family. I understand that he has given me many wonderful opportunities and I would willingly do whatever he asked of me as an official.

He knew about the situation within 30 minutes of the end of the match. I had nothing to be concerned about and did not want him caught unaware.