[JRutledge]

In 2005 I worked a summer league game at a HS very close to my house. I was working with another very good official and both of us were relatively young than most officials. In this particular game one of the teams was a religious school and the other was a newly formed public school. The public school had its first year of varsity sports during the 2005-2006 school year. This game was between two varsity teams and the religious school was being coached by their varsity coach.

During the game my partner and I call about 4 or 5 fouls in a row on the religious school on the same end of the court during the same possession. Well I happen to call the last foul, all were box out type of fouls where the defender basically push out of the way the opponent and move them several feet away from the ball. Right after I call the foul the coach goes nuts on me when a timeout is called. He comes out and starts going off. He curses, he raises his voice, he is about 5 feet away just going nuts about what I called (he was really not upset with me). I start back at him and I say to him, “You are cursing at me? You have the nerve to curse at me and behave that way towards me. This is a Christian school, you need to be more of a professional, this is summer league for God sake.”

After the exchange there was silence. During the rest of the game there were no other incidents, not Ts were given and everything went smooth. After the game this coach comes to me and says, “You were right, I do need to act like a professional.”

The ironic thing is I find in the fall that I have this coach during the regular season. On top of this coach is playing one of the best programs at home with a famous coach. When we get to the game the visiting team is ranked #1 or #2 (I cannot remember) in the state. So I am thinking there is going to be a problem. I was not sure if the coach knew my name or anything about me before this game and during the summer incident. Well the regular season game goes off without a hitch. This coach who I had the run in with only argued about one call I made all night. He does get very intense and has a scowl on his face that might scare many other people under the right circumstances. I did tell my partners before the game so they would be aware if something did happen.

Fast forward to March during the State Tournament. I happen to sit with the assignor that assigns this coach’s conferences and some fellow officials at a hotel bar that everyone comes to after or in-between games from the State Tournament. Well this coach comes to the bar and sits and talks to all of us that are sitting at the table. I am sitting with the assignor of this conference in basketball and happen to be sitting with the football assignor for the same conference, who is also a former state final official. I believe there was one other person that was there but I just cannot remember because there were people all over the place. Well the all of us are talking about the season and school issues and anything about the tournament and even certain officials. This all takes place for an hour or two. The coach makes a comment about not getting upset or something along those lines and I make a joke about that and we both laugh. The entire conversation you could tell there was an “I know you” kind of look that each of us had.

When everyone gets up from the table and starts to make their way to the arena, I ran into the coach in the hall way with a friend of his that was not at the bar table. This coaches friend makes a joke about how his friend gets a little intense and asked me did I ever T him up during a game. Well then the coach and I let down the façade and talked openly about the summer incident. He admitted to being upset about they way his team played. He said to me, “You were right, it is summer league.” And we have one big huge laugh about the incident and joked about what happen on both of our parts. I retold the story to his friend and we had about a 10 minute conversation and I told him I held no animosity about the situation and he was just doing his job and things like this happen. I told him it would have been pointless to T him up and he was there to get his kids ready for the season. I also said I was there to get ready for the season and that I understood the way he acted because he was more upset about how veteran team was playing against a bunch of freshman and sophomores on the other program.

This was one of the funniest things I have ever come in contact with during my career. Usually these situations get ironed out very quickly or they fester until a much later situation where feelings are hurt and things much harsher are said.

Peace