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I have coached my daughter's 5th and 6th grade team and am now coaching my son's 4th grade team this year ( I also officiate these grade levels when I can ) Every year it is getting worse.
This year at a local tournament a parent was upset because the ref did not call a foul on our team and started letting the f bombs fly . Finally the official called the coach over to calm her down, which I thought would work . She shut up , then she started letting the bird fly at the ref . I did a double take to see if that is actually what she was doing and it was . She continued this for the rest of the game ( the official never new it b/c she only " flew it " when his back was turned ) Then she started flying it to our parents ......... bad situation. At the next tournament the coach came up to me and said that he ended up removing the player from the team because of the parents actions. Evidently , this was not the first time for her actions.
We recently had our youth tournament( 4, 5 ,6th grade ) and I officiated a game with a HS student . At half time the student says " I'm getting pretty tired of the coach " I tell him that I will try to stay on the coach's side more often with ( the HS student forgets to switch &/or gets crossed up ) and maybe that will calm the coach down. ....... Wrong ..... he starts chirping and I really don't hear what he is saying until my 3rd trip up the floor . I put up the stop sign and say " Coach I've heard enough ".......... I guess he doesn't know what the stop sign is .......Whack ! I then explain to him that if he continues then he gets a seat in the parking lot . He then settles down and coaches his team to a win . After the game everyone is treating me like a hero b/c I gave him a technical , even the parents from his team.
I really believe that for the most part if the coaches are kept under control the parents usually follow. When I ref these games I give the coaches a little room but not too much. When they start to overstep I give them the stop sign then back it up. By being firm and consistant it does reduce a lot of the problems. I really do like working these games b/c the kids are great ........ unfortunately the parents can really ruin the good time.
[Edited by RefTip on Feb 21st, 2005 at 11:42 PM]
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