Just doing some screening, so to speak, for our H1 Thunder's participation in future and current leagues.
One major factor, and I always say this is 90% of the whole deal, is officiating. We don't expect perfection. After all, missing a call or two doesn't mean a referee isn't very good. We are all human. But interaction with coaches and players is important. A very good referee can do this while continuing to have authority on the court. And there are some very good ones in our leagues.
But I will try, at all costs, to avoid two referees who have ruined games for us in the past: Ramon and Matt (Ho). Ramon cost us a playoff game in NJB All-Net 13U two years ago, suddenly taking the game over and making guess calls while he was 50 feet away. Phantom fouls, especially one on Tani as he scored a layup on a fastbreak. Allowing a player on the other team to travel all game long.
Ramon has a well-earned reputation for this penchant, for trying to dominate the game with his whistle, and this is well known from youth leagues on up to men's leagues. The one place where I've noticed he tones it down big time is in varsity basketball, where they have three-man crews and he is never the lead official.
Matt Ho has also cost us games before. He singled out one of our players (Shawn Cambra) in our first league (KAC) and teched him a few times for doing nothing more than a normal reaction to foul calls. I always give referees the benefit of the doubt, being a former youth referee myself, but after the third time, I realized that Matt was deliberately picking on Shawn.
Later, he reffed a game in NJB All-Net 15U and called Isaiah Visoria for an offensive foul even though he later admitted to me that the never actually saw the foul. Isaiah was dribbling the ball on the right wing, totally juked the defender, who fell down, and Matt called an offensive foul. He made the call even though he was behind Isaiah and had no angle to see the alleged contact.
That came with just a few seconds left in a game. We ended up losing that game. I talked with Matt and his other referee for 30 minutes after that. He never explained to me why he decided to make a crucial call without actually seeing it.
A year or so went by, and he was coaching a team in another league, playing against us. One of our players told me after the game that Matt had been asking our Thunder players, "Is Coach Paul a good coach?"
I don't care what people think of me as a coach. But I do care that a referee who has hurt us in the past asks these kinds of questions in the middle of a game. And it's pretty obvious that he has a problem with me for standing up for our guys when he makes crazy calls and decisions as a referee.
So, it's a priority for me to stay in leagues that have good referees who are accountable to their league directors — CAL and PAA, for sure — and to avoid leagues that refuse to accept responsibility for referees like Ramon and Matt.
So I asked some league directors this: Would you allow Ramon and Matt to officiate in your league?
Greydon Espinda, CAL: "Never."
Clay Tang, Ikaika League: "They do not officiate in my league. We hold a higher standard on officiating."
Stephen Chong, NJB All-Net: "We do not hire individuals. We hire the association. As far as I know they are still part of the association that we use. We also use a group headed by Chuck Martin. Do you like Chuck? Refs are refs. There are bad refs in all ref associations. But its your choice. We do not play in some leagues for similar reasons."
In other words, Stephen is saying that his league is not responsible for quality control. That they will never suspend or ban Ramon and Matt. This has been the same every year. They refuse to be accountable to the most important people in the league: the players.
(Note: Poor officiating is one of the reasons we will not play in Open Court League no matter how many times they call/beg us to return. They do not believe in using the National Federation of High Schools rule book and, in fact, they are proud of this fact. This is a horrendous disservice to players.)
Ikaika League and NJB All-Net run at roughly the same time (March to May), using some of the same gyms. There would be scheduling conflicts if we played in both. We've never played in Ikaika League, but I am strongly considering it.
1. Quality Control on officiating. Ikaika League obviously cares more than NJB All-Net about this, even though so many coaches do not like their teams and players being subjected to Ramon and Matt.
2. NJB All-Net does not allow players to play in more than one age group division. Ikaika League does.
3. Ikaika League charges $550 per team while NJB All-Net charges $550 per team PLUS $5 per player for insurance.
4. I've heard only good things about Ikaika League over the years. Many times.
CAL League (Intermediate Gold Division for us) will wrap up sometime in March, I believe. PAA League, as well. (Aiea League will be done by Feb. 15.)
If we don't play in NJB All-Net this spring, we will still probably play in the annual NJB Summer Classic (July) because for whatever reason, I haven't seen Ramon and Matt referee any games in that tournament.
Parents, please provide your thoughts and input on this any time.
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