It was pretty bad but, we won
. Stories about the Cougars?
Stories about officiating.
A funny one comes to mind. When I took a position a couple years ago at a school and in a conference that I have no connections to, I was warned that "The officiating in this league is terrible."
We were playing a mid-season conference game against a wishbone team (be still my heart), and it was maybe a 7-7 or 7-3 or 10-7 game in the 3rd quarter. We're driving downfield, which was certainly a rarity for that team, and our RB busts off a good 15-yard run to get inside their 20. The play involves the QB taking the snap, opening to the left, and flipping the ball nearly parallel to the line; the RB fires off at the snap, grabs the ball from the air, and goes. A flag comes out. The ref signals holding.
He comes over and I'm the first one there. Here is our conversation:
ME (calmly) -- Who's it on?
HIM -- Number 44.
ME -- Number 44 was the ballcarrier, so how could he have held?
HIM (glancing back at the field) -- Sorry, number 34.
ME -- 34 is behind me and hasn't played offense this quarter.
HIM -- Hell, maybe it was 24.
ME -- 24 barely sees the field in garbage time of JV games.
HIM -- 14?
ME (voice rising to about three decibels over a normal speaking voice) -- We don't have a number 14.
HIM (reaches for the pocket, which has an exposed part of the flag) -- If you want 15, keep talking.
I once was grabbed out of the air by our head coach and defensive coordinator. The team we were playing is incredibly dirty and it's a rivalry, so things get vicious. Our RB got taken down and about three guys piled on after the whistle. Right in the middle of it, plain as day, I can see their linebacker twisting our guy's leg at the knee. I jump off the sidelines and somehow got pulled back out of the air.
Coming out from halftime, I approached the officials and said (in a very calm voice), "Number 4 for them has been doing some pretty dirty stuff; I saw him twist our guys' legs a couple times, and I swear I saw him trying an eye gouge." The referee says, "Okay, thanks, we'll keep an eye on it", and one of the other ones (back judge maybe, could have been umpire) looks at me and says, "Why don't you shut the **** up and actually try winning the game?" If memory serves me right, we were leading at the time and didn't fall behind for the last time until about 3:00 to go.