Let's hear it for the Refs !

[jvriezen]

I'm disappointed with all the posts that are roughly of the following form:

"I'm not complaining about the refs, I know they are volunteers, and the job is hard and they miss some things, but in this this match, the ref blew the call and as a result, we lost the match by less than the 5 point foul that should/should not have been called. It ended our season, caused pain and misery, blah, blah, blah, video replay, better ref training, refs were awful, etc. etc. "

Consider a different style of post, one that I've never seen before:

"We were the #1 alliance and picked the team 9999 as our first pick. But in SF2-3 which was a very close match they made a very poor decision to go for one last high shot from the middle of the courtyard (and missed) and then didn't get on the batter in time and as a result we lost. Team 9999 has been around a long time. The mentors and drive coach should have been more aware of the correct strategic move in that case and the driver should have known what to do. As a result we lost the match and were eliminated, blah, blah, better mentors, blah blah."

In most cases, folks that feel like a ref's choice caused their team's loss are very willing to post the video link, refer to the exact time of the occurrence, and provide their detailed analysis of why the ref 'messed up.' You wouldn't do this to your own team mate if they messed up, you wouldn't do it to an alliance member or team. You'd not post the video link if the ref clearly messed up but did so in your favor. You only post ref issues when they directly negatively affected YOUR team.

If you feel a ref has made a bad call, go to the question box (which I'm sure most have done in these cases) and if you need someone to commiserate with and validate your take on what happened, feel free to do that with your team mates in a a very limited way, but don't publicize that you think a ref messed up on CD where hundreds or thousands will see it, including the ref or other refs or potential future refs.

Ref's don't want to see their calls analyzed in a public forum, if they did, the refs would be posting videos here and saying "In this match at 1:30, did I make the right call?"

If you think the current referee crew is doing a less than adequate job, contact the volunteer coordinator (preferably after the event -- they are busy!) and politely state your case. If they get enough complaints AND have more ref volunteers than they need, they'll likely go with the ones that don't have complaints.

You don't publicly call out your own team mates for their mistakes on CD, and in a real sense, we all (including the refs) are on the same FIRST organization team whose purpose is to inspire and change the culture outside
of FIRST.

We all (I hope) cheer for the refs when they get recognized on the field during opening ceremonies, but I know this community is very capable of expressing much more substantive appreciation to them in other more meaningful ways. I'll start:

A big thanks to all the FRC Referees that give so generously of their time to help provide a massively fun way to spend two or three days for so many students and adults.