Church ball smackdown.

So our church has a tradition of having a little basketball season starting in January. Each ward has a team that rotates around playing teams from other wards. The idea is to get together for some good clean fun. But if you have any experience at all with church ball, you know that there are times when it is neither good, nor clean, nor fun.

Discuss.

Glenn was asked to ref a boys' game this morning. We all decided to go, since we had a vested interest in one of the young men playing. Glenn donned the stripes and was ready to go.

At this point, it is important to note that the refs are not paid. Nor are they trained in any way.

Can you see where this is headed?

Problem #1: The other ref was a kid. He had just played the game before. He is in high school. He had never reffed. So of course, he is going to be a little timid on the whistle. That's understandable, except that it means that there are going to be a lot of missed calls. Glenn couldn't possibly see everything.

Problem #2: The teams were totally mismatched. In size, in skill, in age. (The kids can be anywhere from ages 12 to 18. Big difference there.) The one team went up by nearly 30 points before the other team scored at all. Now really, this doesn't need to be a problem--just a hard life lesson--except for...

Problem #3: Parents who won't shut their traps. Yep, there were a couple of real charmers in the audience today. They sat there and heckled the refs and even their own kids out there on the court the whole game.

At one point, Glenn turned to the sidelines and warned them that if he heard one more word he'd call the game. One dad took a hint, but the other must have seen that as a challenge. He kept on, so what did Glenn do?

Oh yeah. He called the game.

(I loved it.)

He walked out of the gym to avoid feeding the fire, and found the boys from both teams gathered in the foyer for the standard end-of-game prayer. He reassured them that none of them had done anything wrong, that they had shown good sportsmanship, and that hopefully some of their parents can learn that same lesson.

Meanwhile, back in the gym, it was still on with the parents. The main culprit had to be escorted out. But everyone totally agreed with Glenn's call. You gotta give the volunteer, amateur ref and his 18 (or less) year-old partner a break! You gotta stop making an already difficult situation (because being so beat down by the other team was so not fun for those boys) even worse. You gotta let. it. go.

And, if you're me, you gotta feel an eentsy weentsy bit of pride watching your husband take care of some business. That's what I'm talking about.