Can we move the officials to another court?
Unfortunately, almost everything in this country almost always comes down to money. Our businesses donate money to charity, which is great. But many of them wouldn’t do it without a tax write-off. Usually there is a financial implication to most decisions we make.
So, how is this relevant to youth basketball. Let me explain. Youth basketball associations generate large amounts of revenue from basketball tournaments. A decent-sized tournament will easily generate $20,000 from entrance fees and concessions. The only major dollars these associations have to pay is for the officials and perhaps to rent the gyms from a school district. Association leaders want tournaments to go well so the teams will come back each and every year to help them produce income to fund their programs.
Let’s say the tournament organizer receives complaints about the officials (like that ever happens, wink wink) from the coach or parents of one of the teams. What are they going to do about it? That depends. But I can guarantee the first thing they will do is relay the displeasure to the assignor who is responsible for the officials. Now you have to remember that assignor makes a decent amount of income on these tournaments as well. He or she doesn’t want to “lose” the tournament due to problems with officials either not showing up or being perceived as bad, etc.
So, how does this situation play out at a tournament? I saw it firsthand recently. The coach of one of the teams that ran the tournament didn’t want to have a particular referee officiate the championship game. Why? Because that official gave the coach a technical foul earlier in the tournament. Who knows, I wasn’t privy to the situation, but the coach probably deserved it. Does he honestly think that this official has a grudge against his team? I suppose he does, but that’s a weak and shallow opinion. Should you move an official because he called a simple foul on his team? It’s ridiculous.
So what does the assignor do most times in this situation? Move the official to the other court. Why? Because he probably doesn’t want to lose the tournament for the following year. Unfortunately, this happens way more often than it should. People want to avoid conflict (and keep business) so they switch officials. This also happens at the high school level when associations won’t send a referee back to a school after a coach complains. They do this because the association is afraid that they will lose the contract with the school or conference.
What message does this send? To me, it sends a terrible message. Instead of an assignor standing behind his or her officials, they way-too-often cave to this pressure. In essence, they are agreeing that the officials are to blame. If they had any nads, they would stand up to the coach or parents (unless they found evidence of some incompetence) and, more importantly, stand behind their officials.
I know of only one time that I was moved by an assignor. It was during my early years of officiating. There was a terrible junior high girls basketball team that was poorly coached and fouled all the time. It got to the point where you pass on so many fouls because they fouled so much. I think they only had seven players and three fouled out so they ended the game with four players. I had that team the next day and the assignor told me they felt that I was unfair and asked to move me. Fine. Didn’t hurt my feelings. Why didn’t the coach address the real issue, that her players were fouling all the time? Coach them not to. It’s placing blame instead of ignoring the real issue.
But that’s what happens in youth basketball. One of several problems when parents or coaches place blame on others because their team lost. Or when the almighty dollar creeps into the decision-making process.