Those of us who were at Koko Head and Kilauea gyms know what I'm talking about. At Kilauea (NJB All-Net), we had the blessing of two highly-trained officials, including one veteran ILH varsity ref, and they called our 13U game the same way they would call any JV or Varsity game.
Hand checks were called. Shoving away from the ball was whistled. Some people don't like it when so many whistles are blown, but this is how high school basketball is called — especially with the emphasis on "impeding the ballhandler" this past season, i.e. handchecking. And it's in the best interest of our players to prepare them for that level and type of officiating.
Meanwhile, at Koko Head, we've had a lot of decent, but highly inconsistent officiating. Today, it kind of boiled over for me to see two refs allow all kinds of shoving, hand checking and forearm checks in one 13U game, and then in a 15U game, our team was called for a ton of touch fouls while the other team (the league's team) was whistled for one foul in the first half.
It was bizarre, blatant and ridiculous. Is it the fault of these referees in the OpenCourt Basketball League? I don't see it quite that way. They are not trained to officiate Varsity or JV basketball. From Week 1, they looked to me (and I'm a former referee at the age-group level) like they were suited for 12U basketball and nothing higher.
Sure enough, as the tougher matchups came in the schedule, their true colors showed. Some refs don't understand the difference between a legal jump-stop and an illegal one. One ref today decided he would end all questioning by calling anything close to a jump stop. Even the legal ones by both teams.
Then there are the plain-old visual handicaps. Too often, there have been obvious calls in the paint that an official under the basket doesn't call, and his partner at halfcourt either has to make the call for him (or her), or simply decides to swallow the whistle.
This happens on most levels of the game, but in OBL, it's way too common, almost comical.
Not so comical: When the scorekeeper (an OpenCourt coach) shorted us on 4 points until I questioned him, he started to tell me to "Shut up and coach my team." No kidding. And he said it to me 3 or 4 times in a 1-minute span. All because I asked him to check the score. The first time, he said, "I was going to wait until you asked me about it."
The second time, he was so late (or negligent) that his team (OpenCourt) had scored after scored, so he put his team's 2 points on the board and didn't add our team's 2 points. When I pointed this out to him, he told me to shut up.
The weirdest thing about all this is this: People had warned me about this organization, that they were banned from all the leagues in town for a reason. I decided to give them a shot since there were no other leagues active in the month of April. And though the officiating was erratic for a few weeks, it was tolerable. Until now.
A veteran official was going to oversee all of OBL's referees. That's what the league told me before we entered. Then later, I heard he wasn't involved, supposedly because he wanted the referees to get paid the same as they would for all other leagues. When I asked OBL about this a few days ago, all Coach Robinson would say is that he has "no problem with anyone" and that the veteran official decided on his own not to participate.
So what we have now are officials who aren't trained for Varsity or JV competition, who are getting paid much less than trained officials. And who suffers for this? The players.
Many youth leagues fail to recognize that the true customer is the athlete. The kids. It's not about making a league commissioner happy. It's not about the paycheck in itself. It's about giving the players the best service possible. And right now, OBL isn't doing it. And when anyone questions it, they're told to shut up.
Not good.
Hand checks were called. Shoving away from the ball was whistled. Some people don't like it when so many whistles are blown, but this is how high school basketball is called — especially with the emphasis on "impeding the ballhandler" this past season, i.e. handchecking. And it's in the best interest of our players to prepare them for that level and type of officiating.
Meanwhile, at Koko Head, we've had a lot of decent, but highly inconsistent officiating. Today, it kind of boiled over for me to see two refs allow all kinds of shoving, hand checking and forearm checks in one 13U game, and then in a 15U game, our team was called for a ton of touch fouls while the other team (the league's team) was whistled for one foul in the first half.
It was bizarre, blatant and ridiculous. Is it the fault of these referees in the OpenCourt Basketball League? I don't see it quite that way. They are not trained to officiate Varsity or JV basketball. From Week 1, they looked to me (and I'm a former referee at the age-group level) like they were suited for 12U basketball and nothing higher.
Sure enough, as the tougher matchups came in the schedule, their true colors showed. Some refs don't understand the difference between a legal jump-stop and an illegal one. One ref today decided he would end all questioning by calling anything close to a jump stop. Even the legal ones by both teams.
Then there are the plain-old visual handicaps. Too often, there have been obvious calls in the paint that an official under the basket doesn't call, and his partner at halfcourt either has to make the call for him (or her), or simply decides to swallow the whistle.
This happens on most levels of the game, but in OBL, it's way too common, almost comical.
Not so comical: When the scorekeeper (an OpenCourt coach) shorted us on 4 points until I questioned him, he started to tell me to "Shut up and coach my team." No kidding. And he said it to me 3 or 4 times in a 1-minute span. All because I asked him to check the score. The first time, he said, "I was going to wait until you asked me about it."
The second time, he was so late (or negligent) that his team (OpenCourt) had scored after scored, so he put his team's 2 points on the board and didn't add our team's 2 points. When I pointed this out to him, he told me to shut up.
The weirdest thing about all this is this: People had warned me about this organization, that they were banned from all the leagues in town for a reason. I decided to give them a shot since there were no other leagues active in the month of April. And though the officiating was erratic for a few weeks, it was tolerable. Until now.
A veteran official was going to oversee all of OBL's referees. That's what the league told me before we entered. Then later, I heard he wasn't involved, supposedly because he wanted the referees to get paid the same as they would for all other leagues. When I asked OBL about this a few days ago, all Coach Robinson would say is that he has "no problem with anyone" and that the veteran official decided on his own not to participate.
So what we have now are officials who aren't trained for Varsity or JV competition, who are getting paid much less than trained officials. And who suffers for this? The players.
Many youth leagues fail to recognize that the true customer is the athlete. The kids. It's not about making a league commissioner happy. It's not about the paycheck in itself. It's about giving the players the best service possible. And right now, OBL isn't doing it. And when anyone questions it, they're told to shut up.
Not good.
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