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Last night I was working a boy's JV game. Home fans were all in the stands on table side. A couple fans for the visitors were in the stands opposite the table, and the visiting Varsity coach and his assistant were sitting by themselves about midway up on the far end of the stands (opposite the visitor's bench). The entire first half, the visitor's varsity coaches are riding my partner and me loudly. They got on us every time we were on that end of the court. They were relentless and very loud, but we managed to ignore them. Keep in mind the home team went up by about 20 quickly and it stayed that way the entire game. Fouls in the first half were 13 for home and 7 for visitors. The game was not clean, but the home team was clearly the better skilled and more aggressive team. Home JV coach was vocal but respectful. Visitor's JV coach said nothing to us the entire game, coached his kids, and even engaged in some cordial talk just before the second half started. Here's where it got interesting.
Early in the third quarter, during a relatively quiet moment in the game, I'm lead opposite the table on the visitor's end. The visitor's V coach (or his assistant - I'm not sure which was which) yells out at me for all the gym to hear "You don't belong at this level! This level is way too advanced for you!". Well that one got under my skin and as I was running back the other way during transition, I looked up and mouthed "shut up" at him. I know it was the wrong thing to do. I wouldn't have done such a thing if it wasn't a coach and if there were other fans around that area, but I just reacted poorly. He then yelled out "No you shut up!" and at that point I knew I screwed up and I just ignored him from then on.
It turns out I was also being evaluated by the guy who was going to be working the Varsity game. I didn't know I was being evaluated till the end of the game. Now as much as I know I did the wrong thing, I felt like it was an incredibly classless way for a varsity level coach to behave. If he was on the bench as an assistant to the JV coach I would have the ability to handle it properly. But sitting there in the stands, I believe he was way out of line. It just seems inappropriate for a varsity coach to be able to verbally abuse officials from the stands.
I definitely learned something from this. I need to ignore everything I hear and not react to anything in the stands. I got dinged pretty good for it in my evaluation, and I deserved it. I would have never done this if it were a casual fan, a parent, or a kid. And I won't do it again if this or any other coach says anything from a location other than the team bench. It just ruined what otherwise was a pretty good game. Other than that I got a great evaluation.
Just venting...I learned what I learned and the rest is forgotten. Sometimes in order to take a couple steps in the right direction you have to take a step backward.
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