by Diane J-N

As many of you know from us flooding your inbox, either because you’re a current ref, or a friend or captain we’ve harassed to try to get more refs, Zach and I took on the seemingly simple admin task of ref scheduling this season. Little did we know…

The best part of this job? Getting to know our amazing ref crew! These guys and gals are the lifeblood of this league. They keep our games going. They keep us safe. They take a lot of crap but still keep coming out because we need them. In honor of our first ref appreciation night out (and writing this extremely hungover from said night out), we wanted to give a big thank you to these BTSHers and share with the rest of the league some of the awesomeness we have on this squad.

Preliminary shoutouts

This year we had 39 refs from 15 teams – a pretty lean gang to cover 22 slots a week!

We welcomed 14 newbie refs hailing from 9 different teams. We all know Cro (Hookers) jumped in and took on a ton of games; rookie Erich G (Gremlins) also clocked in 10 games this season and Melody (FA) took on 11.5.

Our 2016 season featured 7 lady refs from 5 different teams. Four were newbies, with longtimers Rachel G (Butchers) and Ashley Mc (Gut Rot) coming back for another year with you goons.

Top contributions by team

Most refs per team:
Three way tie for 2nd, Math, Mega and Rehabs with 4 refs each
Winner: league favorite, the Fuzz, with 5 refs this season

Percentage of games reffed per team:
3rd place: Hookers and Rehabs tie at 11% each
2nd place: free agents Newman and Melody account for over 16% of games between just the two of them
1st place: Math handled nearly 20% of games

Top contributions by individual

We all know the big four refs who you see on your courts week after week, but after them, our three runners up for most games:
#7: Alex Z (Rehabs) with 15 games
#6: Eli (Math) with 16 games
#5: Bob W (Skyfighters) for 17 games. Bob W reffed 4% of our games as the lone ref for Sky Fighters.

And our big four. Many people have asked how much BTSH pays these guys as they consistently step up to ref multiple games a week.
Tied for 3rd: Isaac (Karma) and Sam (Math) both worked 43 shifts this season
2nd place: Cro (Hookers) was one of our first new trainees of the season, and took on 45 games.
1st place: everyone’s favorite, Newman (FA) took on a whopping 59 shifts.
Note that both Sam and Cro worked all but two weeks of the season and Newman and Isaac each missed only one. That’s dedication kids.

Y’all are heroes.*

Gasface Awards

We know it’s no longer a requirement and that’s why we pay our refs more now and yada yada, but c’mon, every team should have one ref in the game. Knowing how hard it is to ref makes you appreciate your refs more. It’s a great way for newcomers to learn our rules, since we all know this game we play is definitely not hockey. 2nd place gasface award goes to the five teams that I challenge to step up next year: Cobra Kai, Riots, Filthier, Fresh Kills, and Lbs.

1st place gasface award: everyone who makes reffing suck. We often hear from potential recruits that they once reffed until a game where X or Y happened. Even I’ve retired to GC over reffing after a team was on the court chirping us about every other call. If you’ve refused to have a certain ref do your game, this is to you. If you’ve been cited for ref abuse, this is for you. If you haven’t been cited but you’ve been a dick to them, this is your award. We’re all adults here and for the most part, we’re friends too. Let’s keep this community top notch.

Three ‘Golden Whistles’ of 2016

Sam: for reminding us that BTSH is really about drinking beer out of a paper bag and keeping these games fun and light. Perhaps our best dressed ref, Sam gets a special shoutout for debuting the de-escalation and ejection color-coded cards.

Isaac: This guy steps up even when he really, really doesn’t want to. One brutally hot summer day Isaac told us early on he just couldn’t be on the courts for his game + the three games he had signed on to ref. After finding a ref to sub in that went to brunch instead, Isaac reffed that game anyway like the hero he is. Also a special shoutout for throwing Gut Rot a penalty shot in the middle of us getting massacred by some friendly competition from Cobra Kai.

Alex Z (Rehabs): have you seen Alex ref? The man comes off a ref shift sweating bullets because he takes it so seriously. He runs up and down the court to keep up with the game and make sure he’s catching everything. There is no other ref like him.

Honorable Mentions:

Alok (Mega): some of you non-refs may think these guys are in it for the big bucks. While we know that is certainly not the case for most of our squad, Alok actually contributes his ref money back to the league.

Derek (Math): for volunteering to ref up to one week before his first child was due to be born. Congrats on the most recent addition to the BTSH family!!

Our semi-finals and finals game refs: Shuey (Biters), Worky (Biters), Sam, Isaac, and Eli. These dudes reffed some tough games and made some hard calls. They were professional and fair in some very heated moments.

Last minute fill ins: in addition to our regular refs who jumped into games last minute, we had a few not so regular refs who were willing to take a game or two when desperation called. Shoutout to Jackie S (Hookers), Cheeky (Mega), Art (Butchers), Chadwick (Karma), Walker (Gremmies), Rachel K (Rainbows), and Mike D (WTP).

Your 2016 Refs

Buy these guys a beer!

Demons: Rubens;
Hookers: Al H, Cro, Jackie S;
Mega: Alex EM, Alok, Hanson, Cheeky;
Rehabs: Alex Z, $h0\/\/t!m3, Bryan W, Eric R;
Fuzz: Rich*, Shaun, Alyssa, Jeff, Brugger;
Butchers: Rachel, Art
Gut Rot: Ashley Mc, Diane
Karma: Isaac, Chadwick
Biters: Worky, Shuey, Probert
Sky Fighters: Bob W
Poutine: BSA
Math: Derek, Eli, Sam, Zach
Gremlins: Erich G, JW
Rainbows: Josh W, Rachel K
WTP: Justin, Dudolevich
FA: Newman, Melody

*Except you Rich. You’re still a heel.