Ok...so we had our second annual Clemson "Spyder class" only Tourney this Saturday. We had some real interesting things happen on the field related to restricting the Bunkering to Tags. It realy was a difficult thing to Referee. We had three indcidents that were confusing and hard to call to some extent. This might get long so tune out now or go get another cup of coffee and relieve yourself before proceeding...
Situation: Walt aka fatman was head ref. Me ref at the 30-40 percent area down low.
1st incident: We had this one bunker that was pretty wide. I would say about 7 or 8 feet. It consisted of a large square plastic tank, a pallet and two plastic barrels on the end shaping it like a T. A player advanced to this bunker who was out of paint. An apposing player came put to run and tag his bunker but did so on the opposite end. I called the player out who was hiding behind the two barrels but this was later reveresed by Walt due to the distance. My initial call was due to the fact that the person was in a defensive position and the tagger was on the offense and had paint in his marker while the person I called out did not. Could have gone either way I guess.
2nd incident: This game was down to one on one. The kid named Steve advanced up the field and tagged a bunker no one was in. The survivor of the other team had vacated it already and was out of paint. However Steves marker had jammed as well making his marker esentially out of paint in a way. Eventually Steve located him but still was not aware he was out of paint. He aproached by making to a closer bunker and this opposing player then decided to rush the bunker for a tag. Steve saw this and took off out of the bunker and went to another and the opposing palyer followed him. A real funny game of chase went on for a moment but Steve decided to stay in the second bunker and was called out. You see the problem? Can anyone realy be out when both markers involved are down and ineffective? And why didn't either one of these two players think to forget the bunker tag nonsense and go for the flag? That was the best option but they didn't!
Third and last situation: My Son Caleb had reached a forward bunker into the oppositions side of the field. His Marker jammed. So he decides to push up one more. An aposing player, who is out of paint, decides to make a run and tag the bunker. Caleb see's him very soon after he is out of his bunker and coming. Having witnessed the confusion from earlier on these tag calls he jumped back about three strides behind the bunker and sprints to the side of it. He clears the side of it about the time the opposing player slides into the other side of the bunker. So I do not call the tag as he is in my opinion "out" of the bunker. In other words the bunker was no longer affording him very much protection and he is now out in the open and exposed to enemy fire. Another judge is directly behind Caleb on his side of this bunker and no calls it too. At about this point Caleb is turning the corner of the bunker, or about to, advancing on the would be tagger and he lays down on him and starts screaming "Surrender" over and over. The guys does surrender but before I can make the out call they both get lit up from all sides who have obviously recovered from sitting and being spectators for this brief moment and both these two are splattered making the call a mute point really as they both are not out by paint anyway. Since I had not had time to call the would be tagger out he was still live for a moment when the paint came in to take the issue away. And had I gotten it called Caleb would still not have made it back into the bunker before this paint rain came. I think the both got hit by both teams in a cross fire. But I called them both out and it stuck.
I have thought about what other moves can a person make and how this is judged a lot since then. In Calebs case could he have backed out of the bunker and then run right back up to it and tagged the would have been tagger out? Or was the move he made (which was actualy quite brilliant realy when you think of it!
) the right way to react so as to eliminate any argument. I think any time you can take it out of the hands of a judging call and make a clearer play to be called you are better off. SHould the guy in the first incident have been out despite the unussual length of the bunker? Obviously the second incident they could have run around in circles till game timed out before they had thought to go for the flag but can someone with no paint in his marker realy tag someone out?
But I hope you can see how difficult it is to play no bunkering games and how to Ref them fairly. Discussion? Walt? Any input from you on this?
Situation: Walt aka fatman was head ref. Me ref at the 30-40 percent area down low.
1st incident: We had this one bunker that was pretty wide. I would say about 7 or 8 feet. It consisted of a large square plastic tank, a pallet and two plastic barrels on the end shaping it like a T. A player advanced to this bunker who was out of paint. An apposing player came put to run and tag his bunker but did so on the opposite end. I called the player out who was hiding behind the two barrels but this was later reveresed by Walt due to the distance. My initial call was due to the fact that the person was in a defensive position and the tagger was on the offense and had paint in his marker while the person I called out did not. Could have gone either way I guess.
2nd incident: This game was down to one on one. The kid named Steve advanced up the field and tagged a bunker no one was in. The survivor of the other team had vacated it already and was out of paint. However Steves marker had jammed as well making his marker esentially out of paint in a way. Eventually Steve located him but still was not aware he was out of paint. He aproached by making to a closer bunker and this opposing player then decided to rush the bunker for a tag. Steve saw this and took off out of the bunker and went to another and the opposing palyer followed him. A real funny game of chase went on for a moment but Steve decided to stay in the second bunker and was called out. You see the problem? Can anyone realy be out when both markers involved are down and ineffective? And why didn't either one of these two players think to forget the bunker tag nonsense and go for the flag? That was the best option but they didn't!
Third and last situation: My Son Caleb had reached a forward bunker into the oppositions side of the field. His Marker jammed. So he decides to push up one more. An aposing player, who is out of paint, decides to make a run and tag the bunker. Caleb see's him very soon after he is out of his bunker and coming. Having witnessed the confusion from earlier on these tag calls he jumped back about three strides behind the bunker and sprints to the side of it. He clears the side of it about the time the opposing player slides into the other side of the bunker. So I do not call the tag as he is in my opinion "out" of the bunker. In other words the bunker was no longer affording him very much protection and he is now out in the open and exposed to enemy fire. Another judge is directly behind Caleb on his side of this bunker and no calls it too. At about this point Caleb is turning the corner of the bunker, or about to, advancing on the would be tagger and he lays down on him and starts screaming "Surrender" over and over. The guys does surrender but before I can make the out call they both get lit up from all sides who have obviously recovered from sitting and being spectators for this brief moment and both these two are splattered making the call a mute point really as they both are not out by paint anyway. Since I had not had time to call the would be tagger out he was still live for a moment when the paint came in to take the issue away. And had I gotten it called Caleb would still not have made it back into the bunker before this paint rain came. I think the both got hit by both teams in a cross fire. But I called them both out and it stuck.
I have thought about what other moves can a person make and how this is judged a lot since then. In Calebs case could he have backed out of the bunker and then run right back up to it and tagged the would have been tagger out? Or was the move he made (which was actualy quite brilliant realy when you think of it!
) the right way to react so as to eliminate any argument. I think any time you can take it out of the hands of a judging call and make a clearer play to be called you are better off. SHould the guy in the first incident have been out despite the unussual length of the bunker? Obviously the second incident they could have run around in circles till game timed out before they had thought to go for the flag but can someone with no paint in his marker realy tag someone out?But I hope you can see how difficult it is to play no bunkering games and how to Ref them fairly. Discussion? Walt? Any input from you on this?
This didn't make sense to me, and for the most part the ref was totally cool and a nice guy, so I didn't see why he'd make such a call.
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