I can't disagree with the opening post, unfortunately. In the last 2-3 years (in which I've not been coaching, but have stayed around the game in various roles), as more and more schools have opened and/or added more subvarsity teams, there has been a noticeable decline in the age and personal/professional skills of the new coaches. In my area, there's a mandated ethics course that all coaches have to take, but it doesn't really do much.
When I started coaching 10 years ago, I was a "coach of last resort" for my brother's 9th grade team. I was 18, and knew very little about what I was doing, so I kept a low-profile and hoped nobody would notice my ignorance
. Of course, it was easy with the games because we played on Saturdays and the games were worked by varsity officials looking for pocket money. About 3 years in, 9th grade ball was sanctioned and we started playing weekdays with less experienced subvarsity refs. This coincided with my thinking I had it all figured out and I had a brief Bobby Knight stage (without throwing things). Then, when it was my turn to ref our in-house 8th grade league, I found out that it really
is difficult to see stuff off the ball sometimes and it
is a whole different game out there on the court. Consider it my epiphany on how to be a more professional coach. From then on, I learned that you can't question everything, and that being an idiot is never going to get a call reversed.