Ridger Sports | Refs are a part of the game, even with controversial calls

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

— Quite a few local ’Hawk supporters came away from the recent Farmington/Pea Ridge boys basketball game more than little incensed.

There were, shall we say, some “controversial” calls.

Of course, there are always calls that could be called controversial, depending on which side of the gym you might be sitting.

It was true that the officials let the game get out of hand on a number of occasions with an awful lot of people crashing to the floor with no whistle in action.

Football players play on dirt with helmets and padding, but basketball players play on wooden floors in shorts (although the style of “shorts” these days are stretching the definition of “short”).

While there may be those attributing the officiating to men who had an interest in the outcome, I came away believing that the refs in question were at times just not very good. They were often out of position to get a good look to make a call and I believe there were some calls that werebased on their beliefs of what was “going” to happen. Case in point: midway in the second quarter it looked like a bad pass was going to result in a backcourt violation by the ’Hawks. However, Joe Adams raced to the halfcourt line, made an acrobatic leap into the air to bat the ball safely back to another ’Hawk player before it could touch the backcourt, only to hear a referee blowing the whistle and calling a backcourt violation when none had occurred. I was amazed Joe could do that and even more amazed that the referee didn’t wait to see if he could before blowing the whistle.

Being a ’Hawk fan, I recounted the number of times that bad calls either took away ’Hawk points or helped the Cardinals score. Thinking further however,if the ’Hawks could have found a way to neutralize the Cardinals’ ability to drive for lay-ups then the game would have turned out differently. Early in the third quarter, the Cardinals committed five straight turnovers and the ’Hawks only scored off two of them. The lone ’Hawk turnover in that span netted the Cards a lay-up so the five turnover blowup by Farmington only cost them 2 points. Missed opportunity. Against teams as good as Farmington, opponents cannot waste opportunities.

Referees are human and as such are prone to error.

Watching the major league refs make bad calls which are sometimes reversed on replays, it shows you that no matter how good a ref can be, he will make mistakes.

After watching the game, I am convinced that Pea Ridge has the better team although the Cardinals have a couple of really good players. After some initial success offensively with a passing attack, Farmingtonwas neutralized by coach Charley Clark’s defensive changes.

Shooting better in the ’Hawks’ gym will take away some of the Cards’ transition attack. I think breaks usually even out over time and there well may be a different outcome in February’s date with the Cardinals.

Relative to the referees, it’s all a part of the game.

We have all seen the basketball T-shirts proclaiming that “Basketball is Life!” Well, it really is because life itself isn’t fair. There are people who cheat others who often get away with it. Deserving people aren’t always successful and crooked, undeserving people aren’t always caught.

It is how you deal with the “downers” in life that determine your real success.

’Hawks maintain 7th ranking

Farmington up to No. 3

Although the ’Hawks dropped their only game last week, they maintained their seventh place ranking among the state’s 4A schools.

Farmington’s hard-fought win over the ’Hawks boosted them into the third position. Once again, Jonesboro West Side leads the pack with Pulaski Academy behind in second place.

The Freeman/MaxPreps CBS poll rankings are as follows: Arkansas State 4A High School Rankings

1. Jonesboro Westside

2. Little Rock Pulaski

3. Farmington

4. McGehee

5. Dumas

6. Valley View

7. Pea Ridge

8. Malvern

9. Stuttgart

10. Clarksville

Other 4A-1 Schools

12. Shiloh

15. Prairie Grove

30. Gentry

34. Ozark

43. Gravette

44. Berryville

4A-1 girls flexing some muscle

While the Pea Ridge Lady ’Hawks are in the midst of a rebuilding effort, their task is made that tougher by playing in the states’ most powerful district, the 4A-1.

In the most recent Max-Preps/Freeman CBS poll, the conference claims four of the top seven teams in the state in the 4A classification. While Star City is the state’s top ranked girls team, Shiloh and Prairie Grove are in the second and third position, with Farmington No. 5 and Gentry rising to the No. 7 position.

There are no other districts with this much concentrated strength in play.

The first three conference schools are accustomed to high rankings recently with Gentry under coach Tim Rippy breaking into the party. Rippy is the son of the Ozark coach who built a juggernaut high school girls team that won several state titles back ’90s. The best player from Ozarks’ days of glory is Sarah Pfifer who went on star with the Razorbacks and is now a junior girls coach at Gentry.

The poll rankings for the girls is as follows: Arkansas State 4A High School Rankings

1. Star City

2. Shiloh

3. Prairie Grove

4. Heber Springs

5. Farmington

6. Little Rock Pulaski

7. Gentry

8. Valley View9. Pocahontas 10. Bauxite Other 4A-1 schools 16. Ozark 22. Gravette 35. Berryville 36. Pea Ridge◊◊◊

Editor’s note: John McGee is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].

Sports, Pages 11 on 01/26/2011