[justacoach]

Most unbelievable exhibition of multiple ref-as-a-coach insanity occurred in a travel tournament locally.

One of the groups involved had several teams with dads as coaches. Dad's officiating resumes ranged from NBA finals to high level D1 down to D3.

Each of them let their respective pedigrees be known at some point during games.

I can understand the emotional aspect of coaching your own offspring combined with less than stellar officiating found in travel ball. I have often been in that exact same position.

What I can't countenance is the utter lack of respect, to the point of verbally abuse and hectoring and even profanity directed at youthful officials by these supposed paragons of officiating.

One of the worst displays was during the first 12U girls game, a coach walked onto the court during live play to yell about fouls and grabbed the shoulder of my teen-aged son.

Instinctively my son wheeled around, sounded his whistle and served up a T.

The coach returned to his bench and quietly remarked to me "Your young ref just banged an NBA Finals official"

Now, I want to say I have had coaches try to sell some bodacious wolf tickets but this one took the cake.

Other coaches from his group confirmed he was who he claimed, to my utter surprise. I grabbed my smartphone and found a name that fit the face.

Said coach had the good grace to compliment and apologize to the officials after the game.
We spent the rest of the afternoon discussing the disconnects between FED and NBA rulesets.

I told my #3 son this was a story to regale his grandkids with...sort of like Barney Fife giving a speeding ticket to a Supreme Court judge.

As a whole, every coach in that organization was influenced by the poor example set by their leading lights.

My association made a point to boycott any future tournaments involving this tribe of disrespectful howler monkeys.

Since then I have a very short leash with any coach who mentions his coaching credentials.

Now, whenever my #1 son, who bears a sharp resemblance to his younger brother, runs into NBA finals ref, they share a good laugh with their group.

Wasn't so funny when it actually happened.