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All I have to say about this controversy is this. Being one of the refs at the NJ Regional and having spoken to the two Mentors I can assure you that the story your getting is not what actually happened. The call that was made was well justified. Someone mentioned that we talked about it over lunch as if we had doubts as to the validity of our decision. At no time did the validity of the call come under scrutiny. The only thing that changed was the several ways in which we tried explaining our reasoning to the Mentors who seemed to be the only ones who couldn't understand it. I would like to extend a thank you though to the student members of the team who apologized for the behavior of their mentors. Obviously a mistake was made by the Mentors and a frantic attempt to cover it up followed.
Concerning the team who had the wrong pin on the wrong member of the drive team.
It was very unfortunate that we had to make that decision but it was our responsibility to uphold the rules and regulations of FIRST to the best of our ability.
It is unfortunate that we have to learn from our mistakes from time to time but its the way it had to be. The team who was DQed because of the sticker did move onto the quarterfinals so all was not lost.
I am not going to take the time to clarify the rule concerning the handling of the balls by the members of the drive team primarily because it isn't that difficult to understand.
A little bit advice to the teams who are going to more regionals or Nationals........While you may not always agree with or understand the calls of the refs, arguing will not get you anywhere and badgering for explanations of a relatively easy rule to understand only takes away from our ability to do our job.
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