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I am a third year licensed basketball official and have been doing grade school games (5-8) only. I am becoming more and discouraged over the behavior of coaches at the lower grade levels. At both boys and girls games, grades 5 and 6, I have experienced coaches that continuously whine, scream and challenge my partner and me. I gave out several technicals last year and threw out one coach last year. The guy I tossed refused to leave the court and taunted me on his way to the locker room. I told him twice to get off the court. He finally went into the locker room. In another game the coach insulted my partner and I in the opening minutes and was eventually tossed in the 1st period. On another occasion I had one coach pleasantly approach us in the parking lot after the game. He criticized our calls and when he did not like my response of come on coach give me a break he cussed and got on the team bus, which by the way was right next to us with his players on board.
My point is that it appears that grade school coaches have nothing to lose for their expulsion from the game. Many times they are volunteers and have no other affiliation with their schools. They do not receive penalties a as high school coaches get when tossed.
In closing, I admit I am still a novice and have made some mistakes and blown some calls. I deserve being questioned or even shouted at by a coach. But the behavior I have described is unacceptable and I know I need to control these actions and behavior early in the game. But what can we do at a local or state level to insist that this behavior can not be tolerated? Our state high school athletic associations must realize that in order to recruit and keep officials in the profession we must have some support; and for us starting our officiating careers at the grade school level we need some type of deterrent that we can use against the grade school coach. Suggestions?
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