Quote:
Originally posted by Roy G
Need some input guys and gals.
Doing a JV game in a semi-packed house with 2 good teams. From the start of the game, coach 1 is on my case, basically using the U word. As in, "You gotta call that foul." And, his players were on the same page.
Finally, at about 4 min in 2nd quarter, his player drives into the lane and has the ball stolen. As I am running down the side line going with the fast break, he is up, screaming, waving his arms. So, I called a technical foul on him for unsportsman-like behavior.
The game is over at 6:45 PM and at 7:05 the assigner is on my cell phone. In our discussion, he asked 4 questions.
1. Did he use foul language?
2. Did I warn him?
3. Would I call the same foul in my college games?
4. Did it make the game better?
My answers: no, no, I dont know, yes (his kids stopped reffing, too).
So, this is what I need help with. When do you give a coach a warning, and when do you just bang him?
The discussion with my assignor focused on when to give coaches warnings. After thinking about it for a few days, I reached this rubric. If the coach is ignorant of a rule (I know, that never happens) we should politely review the appropriate rules with them in the spirit of educating them. They study how to play the game and often have little time to restudy rules and approved interpretations as they change over time. For example, in the same game, I "warned" the opposing coach not to come onto the floor (it was a very narrow gym) a reviewed the consequences if he failed to follow the rule. In distinction, I dont think we have to remind them how to behave; an adult should know. We don't warn the players, "don't hit the shooter" before we call a foul. Because he was making a public spectacle of himself in his protest, I judged he was behaving poorly and he gave me no choice.
So, fellow officials, do I have it right? Or, are other considerations I have missed.
Thanks in advance.
Roy
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First, out of idle curiosity, to which IAABO Board do you belong and who is your assignor?
Your assignor calls you on your cell phone twenty minutes after the game ends; your cell phone reception should have immediately become none existent. Having said that, your assignor should not have called you within that time frame. When the assignor was called by the coach or athletic director, the assignor should have told him that he would not entertain any complaints about the officiating until the coach or athletic director had taken two asprins and and then called him the next morning.
Since your cell phone lost its reception, you should then have called your assignor the first thing the next morning and told him that your cell phone battery went did and that this was the first time you had to return his call.
As you can see, I am none to happy with your assignor. This was not a flagrant technical foul (meaning an ejection). There was no forfeiture of a game involved; no building clearing brawl with multiple arrests. It was H.S. jr. varsity game for goodness sake. It was a run-of-the-mill technical foul charged to a head coach for unsportsmanlike conduct.
1) A coach does not have to use foul language for his conduct to be unsportsmanlike conduct. While this may or may not be a valid question, I doubt if I would have asked the question.
2) I am not saying that I do not warn coaches, but warnings are over rated. Now I know that not all coaches are college graduates, and I do not care how highly the charged the game is, but coaches are supposed to be "teachers" and we expect our classroom teaches to stay calm and conduct themselves in a rational and professional manner. Why should we expect anything less from a sports coach.
3) Stupid question. While civility and sportsmanship should allways be the same no matter what level the sport, one is still comparing apples to oranges. Of course it has been my experience that college coaches are far more rational and professional than H.S. coaches.
4) That question may or may not be a valid question. Some technical fouls do make the game better. Some TF's do not make the game because they just should not have been called. And TF's do not make the game better but they had to be called. To prove my point: Just before Christmas I had a boys' H.S. jr. varsity game. Home team is getting blown out. Miway through the fourth quarter my partner in the L position has a foul on V1 agains H1 in the act of shooting. V2 blocks H1's shoot after the V1's foul. The block was not BI or GT. As the T I see the block and do nothing except to let my partner know that the ball did not go in the basket. Coach H wants me to call GT on V2. But Assistant Coach H (Varsity Coach H) takes one step on the court and starts screaming at me about the lack of a GT-ding call. If this game had been a one or two point game, instant TF on Asst. Coach H. But Team H is getting waxed. Would the TF made the game better? No, it would just have added insult to injury to the players because they have a varsity coach who is a jerk. I told Coach H that assistants are to be seen (sitting on the bench) and not heard. It got my point across and the varsity coach sat down and kept his mouth shut the remainder of the game.
MTD, Sr.