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Had a game this week, varsity boys, where the visiting bench had a comment each time by. It was four or so minutes into the first half and the bench had a comment about the crews no call on the other end. Whistle, “Official warning for the red team, unsporting behavior from the bench.”
Coach snaps. Starts yelling how embarrassing this is and that they are a Lutheran school. Not exactly sure why that mattered. Proceeded to follow me to the end line yelling the same things over and over again. Whack!
The rest of the game went great. He coaches his team, we had running clock, the other coach was also much more pleasant, it was a great game.
And before a couple of you get all worked up, we asked him to ask respectful questions and to manage his bench before any of these events. All in the first five minutes.......good times.
Like others have said, it is a tool for us to use to better the game. I treat it like any other foul and I truly believe that. There is marginal contact and there is contact that draws a foul. There are comments/behaviors that don’t cross the line, and ones that do. Both have consequences.
A lot of other officials say to be empathetic to coaches and players since they put so much time and effort into their sport. That’s great and all, but you will treat officials with respect.
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