Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

Near the end of the Tucson Roller Derby championship match between the Furious Truckstop Waitresses and Vice Squad, there was an incident that I was standing in the wrong place to see. Apparently, Vice Squad's Barbicide had an illegal contact with FTW's Fisti Cuffs. The incident descended into Fisti Cuffs jumping on Barbicide and pumelling her. I didn't know she had it in her.

Since what she did was considered a "major penalty" and she had had several of them, Barbicide was ejected from the match, while Fisti Cuffs had to sit out for some time for her penalty as well. During that jam, the entire on-track squad of FTW had to ride the pine, save for, if I remember right, All Night Dinah. This should have left Vice Squad with a huge scoring opporitunity, but they were only able to get five points during the jam.

Over on TRD's e-mail list, some fans were furious about the refereeing. Oddly though, the objections seemed to come from Vice Squad fans who were angry about the initial ejection. It looked to me like FTW took the most heat from the referees in that particular jam, it's just that Vice Squad was unable to capitalize.



There were some complaints about the referees in general. Including one complaint that the referees are biased because of relationships with the players. I don't buy that one, mostly because I have not seen any bias toward one player or the other.

The only trouble I see is that with the number of new referees, there have been times that the refereeing crew has been as a whole inexperienced. One match this year had a crew of referees that were almost entirely new. This happened because of the natural turnover in the referee pool. These are, after all, volunteers.

As a fan that attended the Dust Devil tournament back in February, I can tell you that the quality of refereeing surpasses that of the other leagues. For example, I saw one indcident where a referee attempted to engage some rowdy fans that were jeering her. This is a rookie mistake, and an incident of poor game management that I would never see even the most inexperienced referee make in this league.

I don't go to the Sunday night scrimages the way that I used to, but I would often see the referees there. This indicated a level of understanding of their responsiblities. Its more than about knowing the jot and tittle of the rules, it also is becoming familiar with the styles of individuals and teams. Interestingly, one of the referees for my soccer league was at the last bout and she talked about doing this even with our piddly footy league. For example, she figured out my style and she watches for certain things from me so she can judge things like intent. Not that she lets me get away with anything (she sure doesn't) or that she comes down any harder on me (it seems like it sometimes). I'm hoping that this sort of thing is still emphasized among the TRD referees.



The funny thing was that the same weekend this happened, there was a gridiron match between Oklahoma and Oregon. These are referees that only work part time, but are probably better trained and have more game experience than TRD refs. They also even have the advantage of instant replay to review. Guess what? People are still grousing about a single call two weeks later.

In some ways, this is a good thing for TRD. We have a fan base that is getting more sophisticated about the sport. If you are mad about the refereeing, you are not someone who is just checking out the "chicks in skirts." Fans that are passionate enough to complain about the refereeing are fans that are committed to the sport.


I don't have any complaints about the refereeing or the concession stands for that matter. Sight lines, that I have a complaint about...



Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.