Quote:
Originally posted by reffish
In reference to commonsenseref's comment that parents are the cause, I say that the coach is the root of attitude. If parents see coachs riding and blasting refs, parents are quicker to jump the ref. And the kids will follow the coach on the court with that attitude. The coach sets the stage of attitude on the court.
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Reffish, I got to agree with you on that one. One of my responsibilities to my players is to make sure that everyone involved with our team displays sportsmanship at all times. Before the season starts, I hand out a "Letter to Parents" that lays out my expectations on them. This includes a couple of bullets about what kind on behavior is acceptable during games and what is not. I specifically mention all yelling at or to the officials. I also tell them that egregious violation will result in
ME having game management remove them from the gym. Over the many years I've been doing this, I've only had a couple of parents get carried away enough to even approach the line. Usually, when that happens, all I need to do is call back into the stands something like "Hey Joe, lighten up on the refs, ok?" and things settle down. About three years ago I had one wife make her husband leave after my second "Hey Joe", but that was the most extreme it ever got. My favorite threat (never actually had to do it) was to call a timeout specifically to ask someone to quite down. That would bring the ire of all the fans down on them, and it would also hurt the team by costing us a timeout. Talk about peer pressure.
Frankly, the biggest problem I've ever had with parents has been them coaching from the sideline, not "working the refs". Talk about destructive behavior! But that's a thread for another board.