"Wild Time" (KAT AND THE KINGS)

So tonight I witnessed the type of referee I do NOT want to be. I've seen referees who are a little weak in their calls and they might irritate you with a call or two but tonight that was not the case. There was 8 of us catching a D2 men's team, Sofa King, play the No. 3 team and we sat on the pads on the sidelines doing our usual cheering. My referee clinic instructor was also refereeing but he was on the other court. I spoke to him briefly and he told me about getting a call from the assignor of NY Urban about me and giving a recommendation. I guess when I had called the assignor my phone number and email were cut off in the message and he could not get in touch with me. Well, now I have the forms and are being sent in. We'll see what happens next.

Anyway, we were cheering on our team as they were playing against the team who was in one spot below them in the rankings. In order for them to stay in first place, they could not lose anymore games until the playoffs. They eventually pulled it together and won the first game, but they really needed to adjust things if they were expected to dominate in the next two games. They had problems with poorly received serves and a little bit of a lack of communication. The team started to fall apart little by little and sometimes when the team starts to make mistakes they get down on themselves and it's hard to get them back on track. The team knew they were not playing at the level they should be, but it was aggravated even further by the referee. We were sitting behind the referee who started recanting some of his calls. He would call something out or in and then the team would question the call and he would change his mind on the call. One time I could see for certain reasons but when he did it more than 5 times then I started to get pissed. And it was just favored for one team, he did it to both teams. He would call something out and then the team would come up to him and ask about the call and he would change his mind. We were in an uproar and the team, on top of their already weakened attitude, just could not come back and lost both games. This game is such a mental activity that when angered feelings are mixed in, it's not a pretty site. I had never seen such a poorly refereed game. I am well aware of the fact that referees are a figure of authority in the game and you must be fair as best to your ability in calling games, but when you start to doubt your own calls then you must really learn "to get a backbone." It was also an example of how a team and spectators will react to your calls as a referee if they think it is not called properly, but as we learned a referee's decision is FINAL. There is no room to keep changing your mind. Our team knew they played a weak game and lost because they were not playing their best, but they did not deserve the referee they got. Okay, let me stop because I know how irritated I already am about the situation but also how much I do not want to be a referee like that.