Tuesday night, Waterloo West faced North Scott at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, the winner would go to state next week in Des Moines. The WaHawks had a two point lead with only 0.6 left in the game. A Lancer player threw a Hail Mary pass down court. #32 for North Scott (who will play for UNI next year) leaped up, caught the ball, landed on his feet, had to adjust his body and threw up a prayer of a shot that was a long distance shot and made the basket for the Lancer to win the game by one point. The WaHawk head coach after the game said with only 0.6 left that it would be physically in human to do that with only that much time left. After the game, the refs with in seconds awarded the basket (not sure if they have replay monitors in Iowa HS hoops?) and they ran off the court immediatley after the game ended. Best part, those refs are from North Scott and the person running the game clock was from North Scott and multiple people at the game and on West's bench said the clock operator started the clock late. Look at these photos and I wonder if the IHSAA will do anything about this? W West got screwed big time and why would you have refs and a clock operator for one of the teams playing even working a big game like that?!?!? Really not fair to West High.
I don't disagree that the wrong call was made, but just a few thoughts.
1) Those refs should probably not be working that game, but there are a number of factors that come into play. Here's how officials are assigned to post season (in Iowa)...
As you officiate throughout the year, coaches make recommendations for officials they feel should work post season games. Officials do not see these recommendations and they have no part in being selected, i.e. they don't ask. When post season rolls around, refs get informed that they get such and such games. Hometown of officials is not considered, if it was, the shortage would be much worse than it already is. But here's thje caveat....
At the beginning (or anytime really), officials are allowed to submit via the third party website (usually refview.com or Arbiter) a list of schools that they won't work for. One of my coworkers is a really, really good official who does Iowa HS and NCAA Div-3, and gets state tournament games every year. He has his hometown school and two of their biggest rivals on his do not schedule list. He just refuses to do them. It's not because he couldn't be impartial, but because he knows how it looks. Myself, I work regular season games for my hometown team (I still live there and actually played for them back in the day), but I stipulate that I do not work varsity plates, and I would never in a billion years work a playoff game for them.
I say all this because preventing homer perception is really a personal responsibility of the individual official. Could you imagine the headache it would be to try and police it at the IAHSAA level? holy shit dude. What if the guy didn't live in a certain town but went to school there? Or vice versa? It's just way too much when you consider all of the sports and the very limited staff the IAHSAA has. Basically he should have recused himself from that game for the exact reason that happened here.
2)
After the game, the refs with in seconds awarded the basket (not sure if they have replay monitors in Iowa HS hoops?) and they ran off the court immediatley after the game ended.
This is expected and in every officiating handbook from HS on up through pro sports. Officials are always directed to get off the court/field/diamond IMMEDIATELY after the game. Absolutely nothing good comes from sticking around---at all. You don't talk to or thank coaches, you don't talk to or thank players, and no fucking way do you address fans. In the baseball handbook it even goes so far to list as part of pregame that you should identify and know where the exits are before you start so you can get the F to your car as soon as the third out is called. Next time you're at a college or pro sporting event live, no matter what sport, watch the officials after time expires. They are off the playing area within ten seconds. Every time.
And HS sports in Iowa don't have video replay. Even if a school did it's not allowed and there are no provisions for it in the rules.
3) Unfortunately, the officials were at the mercy of the clock operator. They can't reverse it because their indication that the game ended is the horn sounding. They can't be watching the clock, especially at the end of a game like that where they have to be watching feet, procedurals, etc. They made the correct call that they were supposed to. It was the clock operator's F up.
4) I'll get on my soapbox...
As an official, I definitely think clock operators should be paid "officials" even if it's at a lower level. Similar to like how a VB line judge doesn't have to be certified at the level of a normal official, but they have to have some sort of knowledge and testing. Getting a 4th grade math teacher as she's walking out the door to go home and giving her 5 minutes of training because she's the only one available doesn't cut the mustard. However on the flipside, there's such a profound shortage of officials who get paid $130 a night, how do you think they're going to find enough people to run a clock for $20 or whatever?
5) Lastly, the IAHSAA will do nothing, and really, they shouldn't. Their (and other states' policies) are that they stick with officials' calls. They've admitted misses plenty of times, but they don't reverse anything. When you really think about it, if they reversed a call, imagine the shit storm of coaches and parents raining down on them every time there was some blown call at the end of a game in Iowa. It would be fucking madness because the flood gates would fly open. There are tens of thousands of athletic contests in Iowa, and there's controversy in just about every one of them. People have this idea that the IAHSAA is some big huge entity with tons of people and lots of money. In truth there's a tiny handful of people in Boone all making "regular" wages and trying to coordinate the entire state. Good luck with that.
Bottom line...the clock operator fucked it up, the refs had no power within the rules to overturn it, and those refs (if they were from that town) should have recused themselves.
