|
I was ref-ing a 7th grade game many, many years ago (yeah, I'm a coach that used to ref) and Coach A is one of the coaches was one of those my-players-never-foul-but-the-other-team-fouls-and-travels-every-play-and-you-missed-every-call-and-I-will-whine-about-it-from-warmups-all-the-way-til-the-game-is-over type of coaches. So needless to say, coach A complains from the jumpball, and so do his players. At one point, A1 is being pressured by B1 and coach B calls off the press. B1 reaches for the ball one last time before retreating back on defense. As B1 is RUNNING AWAY from A1, A1 loses the ball out of bounds. Coach A starts complaining about "reaching in", and A1 joins right in with coach. Coach screams out "what the hell are you watching out there??!?", and A1 says "He reached, what the hell are you watching?!?!?"
While subs are entering the game and before my partner is getting ready to administer the throw-in, I pull A1 aside and ask him "did he even touch you?"
A1: "no"
me: "so how is it a foul if he doesnt touch you?"
A1 says nothing
me: "If you want to grow up to be a good player, you need to work on your ball handling and stop whining for calls."
My partner hands B3 the ball to inbound and instantaneously, Coach A starts screaming "5 seconds! 5 seconds! Make the damn call!!!"
I blow my whistle and T up coach A, look at A1 and say "or you can grow up to be like that."
|