OpenCourt 29, H1 Thunder 24 (15U)

OBL 15U Division, Koko Head gym
I am one of the guys who hates to blame refs for anything. I've believed in this all my life, no matter what. But when I see officiating as poor and mediocre as this, I can't forget it.

What we saw today was incredible. While our guys were playing a good first half, the two officials (who are buddies with OpenCourt's coach) whistled us for every single touch foul. One of them was the same ref who had worked our 13U game in the morning, and he allowed all kinds of bumping and shoving then. But in this 15U game, he whistled us for barely any contact. On one play, Kyle sprinted up the sideline covering his man, who was dribbling. And Kyle got called for a foul.

The first-half foul count: 7 for us, 1 for OpenCourt.

Also during the first half, the scorekeeper, another OpenCourt coach, almost shorted us of 4 points. It's a good thing our parents saw this happen. On the second missing basket, the scorekeeper actually put 2 points on OpenCourt's side of the scoreboard, then put 2 on ours only after I asked about it.

When I questioned this, he told me to "Shut up and coach your team." He repeated this a bunch of times, and though it was immature and telling on his part, I didn't care. I just wanted us to be treated fairly.

I know some of our guys, even Coach Roy, asked me to stop complaining. So I tried to. But this is the most incompetently officiated game I've seen since Ramon in NJB All-Net a year ago. These guys made some good calls in the second half - the foul count was 3-3 until the final few minutes - but there were still some bizarre calls and non-calls, like the foul on Kyle's 3-point shot in the corner that was not called.

As a former ref, I try very hard not to factor officials into the final results. But in this case, we had no chance. It was horrible on the part of OpenCourt Basketball League, especially with their coach/league commissioner claiming to me after the game that nothing wrong had happened.

I can't plead innocence. A lot of people had warned me about this organization, about the real reason why they had to start their own league - being basically banned by all the other leagues. The officiating had been average at best and more often below average in the first three weeks. But now ... I really wonder if we should play in this league again. For now, we'll finish the season and battle for the titles in 13U and 15U, and as players (and parents), you should focus on your teammates and teamwork - let me handle all the other stuff.

Some things are not worth fighting for, but this is one, and I'll deal with the league.
Lineup: Felcris Jay Corpuz Ahadain, Hsien Pascua, Gabriel Porras, Mosi Afe, Kyle Moraga, Keanu Pratt, Kali'a Mielke, Jared Elwin.