top of page
11. I started reffing basketball when I was 16, so needless to say, adult coaches had a hard time trusting a kid. I've had several experiences that I have had to eject a parent or coach. However 2 events stick out for me.
-This game was in a select tournament (summer ball), and the losing team's coach was giving us attitude all game. We had tried to be patient because his team of 6th graders was losing by 40. Finally he started cussing out my cooffical, which is an automatic technical. No big deal, it didn't affect the outcome at all. After the game, he came over to me while I was changing out of stripes to threaten to have is "boys" to come over and take care of me in the parking lot. Keep in mind I was 17 at the time. When he followed me out to the parking lot to "have a talk", the police were called and he had a report filed against him.
12. The second incident came a couple of weeks later. About 45 seconds into the game, a dad from the stands begins berating for not making a call on a play that he believed a travel occurred. Before I could even warn him, he was on the floor trying to attack me. Two other dad's had to restrain him and he was thrown out of the building. After the game, I was told the man was drunk. At 2 in the afternoon. At his daughters 9th grade basketball game.
13. I referee hockey and I was refereeing a game in a tournament when this happened.
To make this easier, I will call the 2 teams: white team and black team.
To anyone familiar with hockey, as a referee, I must call penalties when players break the rules. Well early on in this game, I was calling a penalty on black team and after I had assessed the penalty to the player, white team's coach started to yell at me that the other teams player should be ejected from the game because he was trying to injure white teams players. I calmly told the coach that it did not look intentional to me and that the kids are only 6-7 years old and not playing at the competitive level so they might not have fully developed skills. White team's coach was furious and started to yell swear words at me and I assessed him a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct (this is correct procedure to follow as an official).
After that, the white team's coach was calm for most of the remainder of the game up until 3 minutes left. One of the white team's players tripped and slid into the boards hard and hurt himself and the coach thought I should throw out another one of the black team's players. Once again, I skated over to him and informed him that there was no penalty and that the white team's player just tripped. This would turn out to be the last straw for this particular coach. He opened up the door and stepped out onto the ice so that we were face to face and he started to yell at me that I wasn't doing my job properly and that his players (white team) were getting seriously hurt. I instructed him to get back on the bench and he refused. He then grabbed me by the collar and I forcibly removed his hand and promptly ejected him from the game. Then he refused to leave and I told him that the game would not continue until he left. The other parents (coaches) then forced him to leave.
Everything worked out right? Well that is where you're wrong. Things got even more out of hand at this point.
After another stoppage of play, I noticed that white team's coach still had not left the arena and that he was in fact on black team's bench yelling at their coach. As soon as I noticed this, I made haste towards black team's bench and told white team's coach that he has to leave the arena. This sentence would turn out to be the proverbial shit hitting the fan. The coach started swearing (in front of 6-7 year olds) and telling me to get a real job and to cut my hair (I'm a male with shoulder length hair) because I looked like a b*tch working a low wage job. Despite this man's abhorrent comments, I kept composure and asked him to leave or I would have the tournament security bring police to escort him out. As soon as those words left my mouth, he wanted to fight. He was taunting me into fighting him by saying things along the lines of: "you think you're so tough, why don't we settle this with our fists right now".
Needless to say, I did not engage in a good old fisticuff. Instead, I waited because security was on their way. They arrived and forcibly removed this parent from the arena and the security guards were met with a loud standing ovation from both teams spectators in the stands.
In the end, the coach was suspended from the tournament and the league governing body revoked his coaching license because this was not his first incident with abuse of an official.
bottom of page