Chris18 wrote:
So much for luck. Got thrown out of a game & getting my first ever suspension. Complete psycho ref. Missed a blatant charge, fight ensued, parents yelled. ref yelled back & tried to clear all our parents/spectators from building. Ran clock to try & make them move out... I explained that's a violation of USA Hockey rules, not to mention being like Communist China. Ref flipped. I stayed very calm, but continued to make my case that the ref was in clear violation of rules. Tossed, which brings "automatic" 1 game suspension. Appealing.
I volunteer for this. And I'm writing this while watching yet another cash grab, USA Hockey "age specific" coaching module. Module is for mites, and I'm in the middle of a 45 minute section- on drug & alcohol abuse. Mites. Yep. Total boozers...
Had this ref the other day again. As soon as she stepped onto the ice I said "ohhhhhhh fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck." Told the story to the other coaches who know me well, but seemed to kind of believe me. 7 minutes into the game a shot gets rung off Miss18.2's forehead (she was in as emergency goalie), she dropped to cover the puck and didn't get up. Psycho ref turned toward our bench and waved me over, or so I thought. I was just past the blueline when she screamed at me to get back on the bench.
"WHAT?"
"Get back on your bench."
"YOU waved me over! My kid is face down an"
"She's fine! She just can't get up."
(half laughing) "Well she isn't really a goalie an"
"GET OFF MY ICE!"
"Listen psycho, we've been through the ringer before you and I, so just relax. I was going to check on my kid an"
"GET OFF! She's fine."
"Ref, I know that now, but I didn't before. You waved me over."
"I waved over your other PLAYERS to help her up."
"Ahhh yes, I should have understood that from the total silence and waving toward our bench. Good to see you're still a great communicator. At least you haven't cursed at our bench yet. YET." And I left the ice with her looking like "who is THIS guy?"
Other ref obviously took the bench side for a while. They have these new "whistles" that don't require blowing (covid) but are push button/battery operated. I asked him "does that have a taser setting?" while pointing at his partner. He chuckled.
Later on we took a penalty. No biggie. Tripping. Faceoff in our zone and she sends a player off to our bench. I couldn't see the boards so I assumed we had 5 on the ice when she told this player to leave. I was muttering about the remaining forward staying along the boards when she dropped the puck and I counted 3 of our players. Sent someone on.... Then at the next whistle I asked why she sent my other player off. Said she didn't send anyone off. I ask what she was pointing at. Says she never did any such thing. I laughed and said "there's LiveBarn here you know. I'll pull the video for review." She then tried to ignore me, so I pressed "did you not count before dropping the puck after you totally didn't send anyone off and never pointed anywhere near our bench? And why on Earth would you drop the puck when my player who you didn't send off was clearly offside, being behind their points?" No reply. So I said to the other ref "you're hearing all of this, right?" He gave me the "pipe down now" look, so I did.
We had this lunatic for another game a few years ago, in a tournament. We were up 6-0 in the 2nd, faceoff in the o-zone. Center goes to dot and the ref says "timeout?"
Center "Timeout?"
Psycho ref "Timeout! Totally classless to call it while you're up 6-0."
Me "I agree, but we DIDN'T call timeout."
Ref "YOU CALLED TIMEOUT! RIDICULOUS!"
Me "I DIDN'T CALL TIMEOUT, BECAUSE 1. I HAVE CLASS AND 2. THIS IS THE OPENING ROUND OF A TOURNAMENT AND TIMEOUTS AREN'T ALLOWED. KNOW THE RULES. I DO."
Ref- "want a bench minor?"
Me- "for you? Sure." Then I yelled down to the other team "We did NOT call this! It's simply a clerical error. No disrespect meant!"
After that game the opposing coaches agreed she's insane and her ref partner said he'd heard she's a "fucking psycho" from other refs but had never worked with her before.
Sad thing is, USA Hockey is THAT desperate for refs, that idiots like this keep getting games.
I have no idea how many games I've coached/watched but I've had real problems with a ref 3 times- all 3 were her.