I almost forgot about this. On Friday, before we played our first game at the Aiea 18U tournament, the lead referee from our game weeks ago — when Tanielu was clotheslined in a tournament game in the same gym — shook my hand and apologized.
He was the same official who had teched me for asking why there was no call when Tanielu was blindsided while dribbling the ball down the sideline on a fastbreak. I knew then and the video still shows that it was a clean, violent foul. The official on the play (I'm told he is a college ref) did not call a foul, though the rest of the gym thought otherwise. A minute later, Tanielu left the game feeling dizzy and holding his nose (bloody).
When I got the technical, it wasn't for yelling or belittling any of the refs. I kept asking for an explanation, and the only one that made (sort of) sense was this: one ref said they were told to keep the clock moving because of the tight game schedule.
In that light, I empathized with them just a little, having reffed years ago. But when someone is hit like that to the head, precaution is in order. Tanielu got up immediately, but held his head for most of the next minute or so. After he left the floor, the gym/tournament director administered basic head injury protocol. Tanielu was required to sit out the rest of the tournament as a precaution.
So, here we were, weeks later, and the lead official is apologizing.
"We could definitely have handled it better," he said.
Really. It took them all this time to figure it out. The reality is, there was zero common sense by officials — all three — that morning. Later that day, Larry Yamashita (head of the association) happened to be at the gym, standing near our team as we had a post-game talk. I talked with him about the collision and how it was handled, and he was sincere about following up on it. I think that's what made the video a point of discussion for the group later.
I just hope by viewing the video (including the slow-motion snippets), they learn that this is still about people. It's still about kids first. Not about being beholden to some mandate about time. Fortunately, Tanielu didn't have a serious injury. Thank God.
For team use only (private):
This is the video clip I sent to the tournament, which was sent to the officials association.
Here's longer version with the lead official trying to explain how no call was made.
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