The Rec Ball League took a week off for the holidays, and would return the last Sunday of vacation. Unfortunately, this was too early for players. There was a lack of people at the games, and not all the players showed up to participate in their respective games leading to many problems regarding substitutes and roster availability.
Many of the games were four versus four, causing players to be very tired from the lack of substitutions during the games. This was one issue of week three and many more would follow.
Senior Eric Meredith, received a technical foul in his game after he was knocked down on a fast break, and no call was made. The crowd mockingly laughed at the no call, and Meredith showed his frustration as he got in the referee’s face and began to argue the call. He got a little too close for comfort for the ref and got the technical.
Senior Eric Meredith shows disgust over poor refereeing.
This left a bad taste in the mouths of the refs on Sunday who clearly have made their point that they will not tolerate complaining.
Junior Joey Brunelle, fouled out of his game right after half time, and unfortunately they only had 5 players at the game. His team choose to sit him during most of the game until it got close at the end, where he would come in and help his team get a big victory. With seconds left, junior Matt Sullivan missed a last second three point attempt, and his team would lose the close game. During the game, Brunelle and his parents, who watched from the crowd, showed their displeasure with the refs many times during the game. At one point, a ref turned to the crowd after making a questionable call, and said “enough” to Brunelle’s dad who was complaining about the call.
The refs showed their anger a lot during the games and have shown their authority to stand by their calls, right or wrong. They have also started to step up on giving out more fouls to players who swear during the game.
There were still good games around the league, despite the bad mood that the refs were in and the lack of players or fans at the games.
Upcoming in week 4 are some of the greater games of the season, as the schedules of some teams have changed in order to make the games more competitive and get closer games to prevent the twenty point blowouts that have been occuring recently. Then, after this week, the rest of the schedule will be released, so fans can get ready for a turn for the good in rec ball weeks to come.
