FB: Northwest Conference

[Andy Jamison - Walla Walla Wildcat]

Great test for the Cats this past Saturday... Pacific came ready to play and definitely wasn't intimidated at all by our ranking our what we had done so far in the season.  The game was chippy and unfortunately we had 2 personal foul/unsportsmanlike penalties .. I didn't see the plays but my guess is that the second action was what was caught by the officials as that is often the deal... there likely should have been offsetting penalties... Our guys just have to be better than that and not respond... after the game I was on the field talking with a friend when I overheard an older fan tell our "Machine Gunner" that he thought the unsportsmanlike penalty called on him was a bad call... WHAT?  How in the world is pantomiming charging a machine gun and then spraying bullets NOT unsporting???  Holy cow... that was the easiest unsportsmanlike penalty that I have ever seen and I've officiated high school basketball for 20+ years and seen all sorts of things... I actually interrupted their conversation to disagree as that is not what Linfield Football is about on any level... we can't condone or encourage behavior like that from our players. 

Definitely not a big fan of the booing of the officials on a bang bang play at the back of the end zone... Our focus should be on the NEXT play and cheering and supporting our team and helping them get ready for it rather than focusing our energy and to a lesser extent our teams on something that can't be changed.  Was it a TD catch?  Maybe... but there isn't any replay and the officials made their best call so we live with it and move on.  No need to spend the next 5 minutes booing the officials.  The motto of the football program is Team Excellence Attitude Class (TEAC)... we as fans need to hold ourselves accountable to that standard.

[wildcat11]

Fantastic adjustments and effort after the break.  5-0 start is something to feel great about.  Go 'Cats!

[George Thompson]

Great test for the Cats this past Saturday... Pacific came ready to play and definitely wasn't intimidated at all by our ranking our what we had done so far in the season.  The game was chippy and unfortunately we had 2 personal foul/unsportsmanlike penalties .. I didn't see the plays but my guess is that the second action was what was caught by the officials as that is often the deal... there likely should have been offsetting penalties... Our guys just have to be better than that and not respond... after the game I was on the field talking with a friend when I overheard an older fan tell our "Machine Gunner" that he thought the unsportsmanlike penalty called on him was a bad call... WHAT?  How in the world is pantomiming charging a machine gun and then spraying bullets NOT unsporting???  Holy cow... that was the easiest unsportsmanlike penalty that I have ever seen and I've officiated high school basketball for 20+ years and seen all sorts of things... I actually interrupted their conversation to disagree as that is not what Linfield Football is about on any level... we can't condone or encourage behavior like that from our players. 

Definitely not a big fan of the booing of the officials on a bang bang play at the back of the end zone... Our focus should be on the NEXT play and cheering and supporting our team and helping them get ready for it rather than focusing our energy and to a lesser extent our teams on something that can't be changed.  Was it a TD catch?  Maybe... but there isn't any replay and the officials made their best call so we live with it and move on.  No need to spend the next 5 minutes booing the officials.  The motto of the football program is Team Excellence Attitude Class (TEAC)... we as fans need to hold ourselves accountable to that standard.

Andy, spot on good comments.   

GT

[wildcat11]

Linfield vs Pacific Game Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq7pW6-Z9og

[olddog]

I dont know what you guys think of the NW refs, but in the SCIAC its tough sometimes....

[OzJohnnie]

I dont know what you guys think of the NW refs, but in the SCIAC its tough sometimes....

If you're all going to try and discuss the quality of reffing then you'll never beat the MIAC.  This is an actual photo taken at an actual game.



Good luck beating that.

[Andy Jamison - Walla Walla Wildcat]

What I find funny is that we have all sorts of people who want to whine, bitch, complain, and boo the officials BUT hardly any of them actually have ever put on the stripes and tried to officiate.  I am always trying to recruit officials and hardly any one wants to do the job.  If someone thinks they can do better, sign up for your local association and get out there and give it a go.  We need sports officials across the board in every sport at every level. 

It is a certainty that officials miss calls during a game.  What I want is to have them be as consistent as possible for both teams... a holding penalty is the same for both teams... same with PI... roughing the passer.. etc.  Most crews do a great job of this.  The bang bang plays are really difficult to get correct given the speed of the players so I hope that officials are in the right position and are as prepared as possible for making the call.  Officiating is both an art and a science meaning that there is a lot of gray area in what officials call... again, I hope that they are consistent. 

I'd also want to have the NEXT mindset for everyone involved with a program - players, coaches, fans, game day staff, etc.  We focus on the NEXT play and forget about the last play as we can't change it.  Spending any energy in doing so simply doesn't help and actually hurts a team.  I know that as an official the more a crowd gets on me the greater chance the next 50/50 call goes against their team as that is simply human nature. 

College level officials are really good... they take the best from the high school ranks and then because of how things work most officials have to get better to keep and improve their schedule. 

[OzJohnnie]

I was just trying to make a joke.  I didn't intend to offend you or anyone else.  My apologies.

[olddog]

I was just trying to make a joke.  I didn't intend to offend you or anyone else.  My apologies.

Ozy, I got a chuckle out of your post, keep it up...I guess we forget its about fun...

Andy,

I know this is a message board so we all can hide behind our keyboard. I have done FB and Baseball before children. My issue is not a judgement call, my issue is lazy or premature calls. Poor mechanics or just a ref wanting to go home. When you see blatant holding and there is no call what is the refs agenda? That is probably my biggest pet peeve, giving the other player the advantage on purpose. Yes they are human, yes we all need to cheer them more too...however a couple bad apples really spoil the cart.

[wildcat11]

Coach Smith Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqjwVIWExgM

[Andy Jamison - Walla Walla Wildcat]

Don't get me wrong... I thought it was really funny as well... I have always thought that it would be funny to show up with Molly, my Labrador Retriever, on a leash with her wearing a vest and me with dark sunglasses to a baseball game... that or by myself with sunglasses and a walking stick...

It definitely is a topic that bugs me big time but I can definitely laugh at it... we really do need more sports officials as the future is looking really bleak with the majority of officials 50+ and on the downside of their careers... younger people are just not interested in doing the job as they don't want to get yelled at nor do they want to put in the time required to move up.. (of course there are lots of exceptions).

Officials don't have agendas... in all my years of working high school varsity in Oregon I have only come across 1 official who put his ego ahead of doing what was best for the game...That is over thousands of games... for rec games there definitely are people who are punching the clock when out on the court...

Officials are going to boot calls just like players are going to drop passes, QBs throw picks, coaches call the wrong play, kickers miss PATs... all part of the game

[jknezek]

When I coached soccer I always told my parents this story I found on the internet:

Two parents were standing on the side of the field. One turns to the other and says, "which kid is yours?"
The other points out a kid and says, "The one in the middle, why?"
"Oh, I just want to boo and badmouth him and yell how bad he sucks," said the first.
"Why would you ever do that to my kid? What a horrible person you must be," said the parent.
"Sorry, I just thought that was how you do things here. You've been doing it to my kid all day."
"I have not," said the indignant parent, "what kid have I said a bad word to?"
"The Ref..." replied the first.

I know when I ref'd soccer as a teenager and after college I got a ton of abuse heaped on me. Parents screaming at 14 and 15 year old refs working 8-10 year old games was pretty much an every game occurrence. Clearly it only gets worse as we get older, and there is a shortage of refs at every level in every sport. While I didn't give it up specifically because of the abuse, it definitely played a roll in making being a ref no longer fun and not worth the money.

[olddog]

I think you made a good decision to stop, honestly I never cared what fans had to say, most of it humored me. No better than calling a high school game behind the plate, call a club game where there are really no rules for the fans. I just tried to be consistent.

[OzJohnnie]

Refs in Australia were harangued so badly, universally referred to as White Maggots, that they changed the uniforms and started evicting fans.  Yeah, that settled things down real nice.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080926042031/https://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21638833-421,00.html

Fans at every ground in the country have used the words "white maggot" to describe umpires for generations.

But Mr Deller will have none of it.

"It's not affectionate. It's abuse, plain and simple, and it's bad for both the recruitment and retention of umpires," he said.

Mr Corfe disagreed.

"Calling an umpire a white maggot is as Australian as having a barbecue," he said.

"They'll need to start giving away Band-Aids at the gate so we can stick them over our gobs."

[desertcat1]

Hey GHC, fire up the G5 , it's lute week.   

Go cats,
Go big d