Opinion: Baker got burned by Cottondale's home cooking

Eight-man football is a popular sport at schools that aren’t big enough to field 11-man teams in states like Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Closer to home, eight-man basketball seems to be a popular sport in Cottondale.

For those of you that have never heard of eight-man basketball, it was on display in Baker’s 72-70 triple overtime loss against the Hornets in the boys basketball Region 1-2A semifinals Tuesday night.

Cottondale had the home floor and also got some home cooking from the officials.

I’m usually not one to question or criticize those men and women who officiate our high school games. I understand that the few extra dollars they pick up for working games probably isn’t worth the abuse that goes with the check. And these people are a valuable part of any contest.

I’ve developed some pretty good relationships with local officials in my eight years of covering sports in Northwest Florida. I’m glad to say the officials in question weren’t those I know and respect.

A former Major League Baseball umpire once said of his job, “It’s the only profession I know where you have to be perfect the first day and improve from there.”

Perfection wasn’t needed Tuesday, but fairness and balance was.

There were numerous bad calls or no calls against the Gators, but I’ll just focus on three that were obvious blown calls. Had they been called correctly, they probably would have made a difference in the game.

The first happened late in a late-game situation. Cameron Davis had the ball and was trying to work his way down the baseline. He was hammered two or three times as he tried to make his move to the basket, but only when he was forced out of bounds did the officials blow the whistle … and give the ball to the Hornets.

Incident two came with 19.6 seconds to go in the second overtime. The Gators had just scored to pull to within a point and set up a full court press.

Baker forced a loose ball in the backcourt as the officials counted off the 10 seconds for the backcourt violation. As players from both teams scrambled for the loose ball, the Hornet coach was awarded a timeout.

The problem with the call seemed to be two-fold. First, the Hornets shouldn’t have been awarded the timeout when they didn’t have control of the ball. Second, once the timeout was granted, it didn’t change the fact that the clock showed eight seconds — meaning a 10-second violation should have been called.

The officials solved both problems by putting two seconds back on the clock.

The third call came in the final overtime.

A Baker guard had gone high to grab an offensive rebound. He was behind a Cottondale player when he secured the rebound in both hands. As the Gator player came down, the Cottondale player backed into him and undercut him.

You guessed it. Foul on Baker. The Hornets got the ball on the offensive foul.

I focused on these three plays because they happened right in front of me as I stood on the baseline. There were several other questionable calls that went against the Gators.

Even when it seemed as if Baker might get the benefit of the doubt, if two different officials saw things differently, the calls always went in favor of Cottondale after the officials discussed the play.

I love the idea of having high school playoff games on campus until the final four, but there are times like Tuesday night when the home floor and home officials are more than the visiting team can overcome.

I have a simple solution.

It seems like it wouldn’t be too difficult to assign officials from the association the visiting team uses during the regular season to playoff games.

In college football and basketball, when Florida plays at Florida State, the officials are from the SEC. When Florida State heads to Gainesville, ACC officials call the game.

Kids work too hard to lose a playoff game due to questionable officiating.

Did the officiating play a role in the outcome of Tuesday’s Cottondale-Baker boys basketball regional semifinal? Post your thoughts below under comments