Refs fouled out during Apaches home game

Tuesday night’s game between the home Gonzales Apaches and the visiting Canyon Lake Hawks was by far the worst game I’ve had to cover, not because of the results but because of the officiating.

I try my best not to comment on referees, especially since foul calls are so subjective in basketball, but when one team is shooting 51 free throws while the other is shooting 24, that’s a problem.

Four Apaches fouled out Tuesday. The team collected 33 personal fouls. High school basketball games under UIL rules have eight-minute quarters. So in a span of 32 minutes the officials blew a whistle on average once every minute.

That doesn’t include the two technical fouls that were called on a player and on head coach Derek Williams, both of which were the result of pettiness and ego from the officials.

Down seven with 7:48 left in the game, Alyas Ramirez was called on a foul that resulted in the Hawks going to the free-throw line since they were in the bonus. 

This was just one of many calls that night against Gonzales when a player made minimal contact with a Hawks player yet a foul was still called although that wasn’t the case the other way around.

Ramirez didn’t necessarily agree with the call, so when one of the officials came over to talk to him they had a conversation. Understanding that I didn’t hear the words coming out of both of their mouths, it appeared as though the official wanted to make his point clear to the senior guard. But after awhile, if you’re a grown man you’re going to have to have the wherewithal to understand that in an emotional situation like that, a high school student may not want to hear it from you. Best thing to do was just walk away if there is no reasoning with a player, especially one that believes he’s been wronged. Instead of doing so, the grown man decided to continue to rile up the high school student until finally he gave him a tech.

As the Hawks player was shooting free throws, Williams, doing his job as a coach, defended his player and pled his case to a second official. The conversation was civil as Williams noted that the first official should have walked away since, again, he is a grown up and should know better. It looked as though the second official was agreeing with the point while also backing up his co-referee and the conversation was going to end until the third official from across the court came over and gave the head coach a tech because he needed to “defend his partner.”

I’ve only been doing this for three years, so excuse the lack of experience, but never have I seen a ref have to stick up for another ref like that. It was absolutely ridiculous.

The calls riled up the Apaches fans and Gonzales High School principal Michael Garcia had to grab a microphone and calm down the crowd saying that they needed to represent Gonzales in a civil way.

My only beef is when a team is disrespected as they were Tuesday night, I will never blame the team or its fans for the way they reacted. Never will I go against the victims of egotistical oppressors like the officials in that game.

This isn’t about a simple basketball game, though the result of this game may be more important than one thinks. This is about respect and power.

I wrote a column, kind of tongue-in-cheek about an official in a volleyball game “benching” the cheerleaders because they were a distraction to the other team. I called the UIL offices and they backed the official, pretty much saying they can do whatever they can for the safety of the players on the court.

That can be problematic as it gives all the power to the refs to do whatever they want. But Tuesday night was different. That game wasn’t about the safety of players on the court. There were no hard fouls. Nobody came away with an injury. This game was about grown men puffing out their chest over some high school kids trying to play a game.

It doesn’t help that basketball is that sport where refereeing is constantly question in all levels of play, but you know it was a problem when one team is shooting 51 free throws while the home team is shooting 24.

Williams actually foreshadowed this happening after their loss to Yoakum on Jan. 8.

When asked whether the officials were a little lenient in that specific game when it came to blowing their whistles, Williams noted that he was bothered by the lack of calls.

“I feel like that in order for Gonzales to get that kind of respect and those kind of calls that you’re looking for, you have to win,” he said. “I don’t think the refs did anything wrong, I thought they called a good game. It’s just for the fact that … you have to earn that respect.”

Later he said that the Apaches were the “aggressor” in that game but since they’ve “been the doormat for so long they’re not going to give us the call even though I felt like we should have home-court advantage, even with the refs and we’re not going to get that until we start performing.”

In the pros, they call that the superstar call. A person or a team needs to gain some respect in order to get calls their way. I think that’s idiotic. A foul should be a foul, regardless of who is committing it or how much time is left on the clock.

There should be no superstar treatment, especially in high school. But is that the reason why the Apaches were mistreated Tuesday night? Doesn’t make a lot of sense. No disrespect to Canyon Lake, they played a good game but superstars they are not. So again I ask, why the disproportionate amount of foul calls?

I think it goes back to a word Williams said in the game against Yoakum. Respect. The Apaches aren’t respected. What other reason is there for the officials to act the way they did Tuesday?

Whatever the reason, it was horrendous. But Apache fans should be proud of their team. Losing 59-47 while the other team shot 27 more free throws is an accomplishment. Being able to contain themselves and not run up on the trio of officials is something I don’t think I could have done. And I’m the one wearing a press badge.

Yet the Apaches did so. The four players who fouled out sat on the bench and watched the game and cheered on their teammates as they try to rally a comeback. But when you have one junior, three sophomores and a freshman going up against a taller, more experienced squad in Canyon Lake, it’s tough. But Gonzales did what they could. Down 54-37 the Apaches went on a 10-4 run to close out the game.

“They continue to fight and they’re just representing the town,” Williams said after the game Tuesday. “[Gonzales is] a tough town, and a hard working town and our kids are finally getting that feel.”

Gonzales basketball is on the rise. Will they ever get the respect of getting calls? Not sure. But they will be a force to reckon with under Williams as head coach. You can see the improvement. You can see the passion. The Apaches are going to fight, even if it’s against eight people on the court instead of five.