[drinkeii]

Originally posted by Jurassic Referee

And as an official, you thought that a girl yelling "ball, ball, ball" was unsporting?


Physician, heal thyself.

Also known as "buh-bye, credibility".

You knew you had uncertified, untrained officials doing your game. Instead of doing the obvious and complaining to the person who was saving the bucks by hiring those non-officials in the first place, you'd rather put on a show from the bench.

Lah me.

Had you read the complete post, you would have realized that I did not know it was a non-certified official until 3 days later when his partner approached me and apologised. Had I known at the time, I would have gone to the person in charge and complained. I assumed, at the time, I was just dealing with an official who was not very good, not a non-official. As for unsportsmanlike, I don't feel as a coach asking the officials to make calls to keep the players safe is out of line, especially when I was not using any kind of inappropriate language or comments. That is all I was doing - complaining about a lack of extremely obvious calls by one official. I honestly wish I had a video tape to show what I mean by obvious - when a player's hips move 2 feet to one side because of a shove when they are in the air to take a shot, and this happens 20-30 times during a game, this is what I'm complaining about.

I have learned a lot being both a coach and an official. I have come to accept that officials have a huge variety of what they will accept as a foul or not, regardless of what the rules say. I have no problem accepting their judgement calls, as long as they are fair and unbiased and consistent. (and I don't mean "Call it both ways" - I hate that comment - I mean calling the same actions the same way from end to end and team to team for the duration of the game - some teams play more aggressively and foul more, generating more foul calls) The players can adjust, if the officials are consistent. If the officials are ignoring one kind of foul, and it is getting kids hurt, and it happens a number of times, this is where I feel I need to speak up. If I swear at an official, I would expect to be thrown out. If I question their lack of making calls when kids are getting hurt, I would hope that they would start to make calls to keep the players safe. They may not. That is their choice. But I draw the line at player safety. I have, on several occasions, been very close to ending a game by pulling the kids off the court before any more get hurt because of a game that the officials choose not to control. This was one of those times. The kids were extremely upset, and I was thinking about pulling them. But their sportsmanship (which in general, my players are very good about - they don't retaliate on the court) held out, and we finished the game, battered, but ok except for one rolled ankle.

So as I said, I assumed I had qualified officials - it wasn't until the next game when the second official approached me out of the blue and apologised, along with informing me that his partner was not a basketball official, and he knew from the start of the game that it was going to be bad because of that.

As for the ball ball ball thing - saying it, ok - screaming it at the top of your lungs 2 inches from another player's face? In any sport, except maybe football (and basketball apparently), that would be considered unsportsmanlike. In basketball, apparently it is not, as was evidenced by the discussion in the other thread.