North County Draws Foul Call : Dispute: South County coaches say they don’t like the taste of the home cooking they get from referees in the north.

In a survey designed to rate individual basketball referees, one surprising finding was that South County coaches were not pleased with North County officiating.

Though coaches were not asked for opinions on the quality of City Assn. and North County Assn. officials, many Metro and City Conference coaches voiced discontent with the work of referees from the north.

North County coaches, on the other hand, offered no opinions on the difference in work.

Many South Bay and city coaches said they felt their teams got “homered” when they played a North County school. Others felt the North County Assn. simply called a game based on a different philosophy than the City Assn. Still others felt that North County referees don’t have the talent that city referees possess.

Said one Metro coach, “I dread having to have a North County official. They can be atrocious. I can see total lack of consistency. You really don’t know what to expect with North County officials.”

The feeling appears to be widely shared:

* “It’s really a disaster for city schools to go up there because they don’t let you play basketball,” a City Central coach said.

* “I think it’s a ridiculous situation. It’s a very poor setup. In my playoff experience, it’s been detrimental,” Chula Vista Coach Mike Collins said.

* “I think the city is far superior to North County. There’s just no comparison. The middle of the road official here would be in the top 10 in the North County,” La Jolla Coach Rick Eveleth said.

* “If you play in the North County, you’re going to get homered to death,” said another City West coach.

* “Those guys (North County referees) think they’re gods. You can’t talk to them or question them at all,” said a City Central coach.

* “North County is a different breed of officials,” said Madison’s Jim Thompson. “It’s a whole different ballgame the way they call it. It’s an equalizer. No matter how much better your team is, (North County officiating) is an equalizer. I want to go into a ballgame thinking we are going to win it or we are going to lose it, not that the official will take us out of it.”

* “If everyone’s saying it, then there must be some truth to it, right?” said yet another City Central coach.

Well, not necessarily. North County officials didn’t tend to agree.

“I don’t see any difference (between the two associations),” said Carl Goff, assignment secretary for the North County Assn. “We call tournaments together, and I don’t notice a difference. I don’t really know what they could be talking about.”

A City Central coach told a different story. He said the North County officials aren’t necessarily homers, they just call a tighter game than what city teams are used to.

“It seems to us, in the heat of a game, that we are getting homered,” Thompson said. “But they do call a different game up there. They have different philosophies of what a charge is, what over the back is. North County officials call a game as if every team is a finesse team.”

A city official, Terry McIntire said there could be some truth to that observation because many city referees also call college games. When these referees do high school games, they are more inclined to allow a physical, college-style game, he said.

Dennis Ackerman, the city assignment secretary, concurred.

“San Diego has a lot of college referees,” he said. “And that has a lot to do with it. The North County might call a tighter game than the city, and that’s just the way it is.”

Some coaches offered a solution--have all referees in one association so they can attend the same meetings and discuss the same philosophies.

Ackerman said there has been some talk of doing just that but that it won’t happen for at least two years because the current contracts between the San Diego Section and each association remain in effect the rest of this season and through the next.

“They should all be from one association,” Mar Vista Coach George Anderson said. “You go to the North County, and it’s tough to win because they have their own officials. That’s not what it’s all about. It’s the same game, right? The dimensions are the same. The height of the basket is the same. Why should the refs be any different? But they are.”