This is very interesting reading. It is very apparent who has experience elsewhere and who thinks Church ball is unique. I have officiated and coached in 4 different states, (my wife even played for a bar that sponsored the team in NY) and it goes on everywhere. The reason church ball gets such a bad rap is because the members are supposed to know better. We assume we should hold ourselves to a higher standard.

I don't like bad things to happen on the court, and I have noticed good officiating really makes a difference, but it certainly is not unique to church ball. The observation that the prima donnas of the NBA do this or that, only shows human nature is improperly displaying itself there also. I would much rather officiate church ball to city league. It has a lot more reward for me. I don't mind too much doing High School, but city is worse.

We recently got through with our region turny. The sportsmanship was rather good. If there are legitimate consequences for poor behavior, people don't want to hurt their team.

Officials have bad days too. Sometimes as a player the rim is 6 feet wide, and sometimes it has a lid on it or the ball is covered in vaseline. In the simi-final game this year I had a terrible day. I even commented to my fellow official that I just couldn't get into it. I apologized to both teams, but they were both good about it. I did a poor job of officiating, I knew it, they knew it, and they took it with good sportsmanship. One of them did start to comment and his team jumped him. Especially after I warned him. I knew I was not doing a good job...but I tried to. So, people can choose how they act. I didn't favor either team and they were pleased to seem me at the finals (well, as pleased as anybody can be at officials)

Bad sportsmanship is not unique to Mormon ball, we should just expect better of ourselves.