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Chess Ref,
Managing coaches is definitely an art and not a science and it does take most officials longer to learn that part of the game than the fouls and violations part.
Try a few things and see how they work for you. Here are four suggestions, but you'll probably find things that will work better for you. As I said, it's an art and not a science.
1) Notice what the coach is doing right off the bat. If he/she has been complaining for the entire first quarter and you didn't do anything to address it, you are already in a tough spot. If they start out complaining right from the get-go, find an opportunity to get over there by the bench at a dead ball and in a nice way say something like, "coach, I need you to coach and I need you to let us ref." Sometimes they get the picture.
2) If you make a call that they don't like and they are STILL complaining about the same call after a trip down and back say something like, "coach, that call is in the past. I disagree. We are moving on." If he/she still won't let it go, go ahead and give an early T. Unfortunately at the sub-varsity levels, many of those coaches haven't figured out the communication part of the game with officials yet either and an early whack is sometimes your best friend.
3) Start managing the coaches box right out of the gate. The first time they wander past the boundary, wave them back in or say, "please stay in the box coach" as you run past them. Sometimes they start watching their feet for the rest of the game which distracts them from whining so much.
4) Address it in the pregame with your partner(s). Managing coaches is a crew job and all of you should be working on it. "Protect your partner" is a good thing to talk about in your pregame routine. I give a quicker T for something said by a coach about a partner of mine than I do for something that is said directly to me by the coach. Teamwork.
I could go on, but those are just a few basic ideas. I'm sure some of the other vets will have some ideas that are better than those lame little tips I just gave.
Z
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