I wish I could tell this from the mindset of who I was when I was 15 because I'm sure it would've been even more fukkery filled, but unfortunately I can only tell it from the perspective I have now in my mid 30s lol.
Our team was a bunch of 15- and 16-year-old kids, and we were playing against a group of kids one age group above us one summer. The game was close going into the last few minutes, and we ended up losing, basically because we felt a few calls didn't go our way. We were all complaining, it's probably one minute to go in the game, and we're down about 7, so clearly we're about to lose but it's close enough that we technically have a chance to win. Then this one ref -- who was probably in his late 20s, was pretty jacked
, but was probably only about 5'6", we all knew him though because he worked at the local Y -- gave a tech to our coach and 2 of our players so it guaranteed we were gonna lose. The REAL issue is we had an a$$hole, immature ass head coach who we all loved at the time because he acted like one of us, but looking back on it, this 40 year old man was out here encouraging a bunch of teenagers to swing on the ref.
Right after the game, everybody is yelling at the refs (I think there was only 2 of them, but there may have been 3), the coach, players, our parents, nobody is really trying to diffuse it. One of the referees just ignored everything and was leaving. The other ref that worked at the Y was arguing back and talking shyt, people were probably making threats, you know how that type of thing goes. Anyway, so we get into the lines to shake hands with the other team, we all go through, and the ref was at the end, our coach ice grilled him, then one of our players shoulder bumped him as he walked by; the ref turned to say something and kinda square up, then about six of us jumped him.
It felt like it went on for about 20 minutes of us stomping this dude out, but it was probably 40 seconds or something. One of the players actually left and called the police. Our coach kicked him off the team for snitching.
Literally nothing happened to us though, no punishments, nothing. Cops didn't press charges. We only had about 4 games left that summer, but my parents wouldn't let me play on that team any longer. I was mad as shyt, but now I understand the issue.