Re: Officiating JO matches--conflict of interest

[Todd <tdh@vbref.org>]

joearkin@ix.netcom.com (J Arkin) writes:
> Todd wrote: 
> >This situation made me scrutinze each call made by the R2 and the line
> >judges with a degree of suspicion.  Although these three performed
> >relatively well, I did overrule one line call that was clearly
> >incorrect.  I also had to make a rotation fault call on the receiving
> >team 
> 
> I don't know how you can watch the service and serving team positions while 
> observing the receiving team.  It's impossible, isn't it?!

Yup, very difficult.  In this case, the offending team had bright red
jerseys.  I'd been seeing the setter go early in my peripheral vision
often enough that I took one point where the serving team was well
within rotation, beckoned for serve, and eyed the receiving setter
just prior to hearing the service contact.

Yes, the team's coach who was there, but, let's just say he's not the
most referee-friendly sort of coach.  In fact, his players are
coached to push the rules, so certainly he was no help.  He knew
enough to jump up and declare that it wasn't my call to make.  With
26.2.2 and 26.2.3 in mind (and thinking, "yeah, and your down-ref
player IS going to make such a call?), I sanctioned him and requested
that he return to his bench.


> If you felt the officiating crew assigned to your court for that match was 
> partial to one of the teams competing, you should've stopped the match and 
> requested the tournament director to provide an impartial officiating crew.
[snip]
> That's a tough predicament to be in, Todd.  Good luck with where this thing 
> goes from here.  The club should be sanctioned (penalized) for such conduct.


In retrospect, the kids did a respectable job.  Their clubmates lost
the match by a fairly narrow margin, and there wasn't enough evidence
that said that they were trying to influence the game.  The line call
I overruled on was a tough one as it landed very close to the LJ and
was moving pretty fast.  I overruled because I had a clear view of it,
knew the LJ had a tough call to make, and that he was a clubmate of
the team that benefit from his call.

That third factor should not have to enter into my judgement.  It was
very distracting to me as the R1 to second guess every decision of the
LJs and R2 in light of which team would benefit from their call or lack
thereof.

As such, the club should not be sanctioned in this case.  I am,
however, going to bring this to GLR's attention to see if it can be
prevented via a tournament guideline.  Now that I've seen this happen,
the next time it crops up, I will certainly send the officiating crew
off to the other semi-final court before the match begins.

Best Regards,
--
                  Todd H.   tdh@vbref.org
USAV Regional Referee, Great Lakes Region, Palatine, IL
Todd's Volleyball Referee Page http://www.io.com/~tdh/vball/
"So you're a Ref and an engineer? Oh that explains it...."