[fiasco]

What a night Saturday was.

JV girls, two really good teams and a really intense game.

Home coach is gradually starting to get on my partner’s and my nerves. He’s starting to complain about every call and starts bringing up the foul count. A few minutes left in the second quarter I finally go to the bench in response to some more of his whining and let him know “we’ve heard your concerns, coach, and now we’re done talking.”

In the second half, he starts out fine but gets riled up again a few minutes into the game. As I am lead opposite his bench, he yells out to me “You are both horrible.”

Whack!

I tell my partner to inform him that he must now wear a seatbelt for the rest of the game. My partner is a bit of a wet noodle, and he never does, so a few trips down the floor, the coach is up not doing anything, just pacing the sideline. I inform him at the next time out that, by rule, he’s lost his coaching box and he has to have a seat on the bench. He grumbles and gives me a nice stare as I walk away.

This guy is sneaky, though. Throughout the fourth quarter, I can see him as I am trail on his bench side standing in the coaching box. Three separate times, as I turn my head after I or my partner has blown the whistle, I turn my head to observe him fully and he sits down on the bench.

During a timeout, he asks to talk to me and says “I know you’ve got something against me, but don’t take it out on my players,” and walks away.

Riiiiiiiight.

I tell my partner “He’s not sitting on the bench. I’ve given him a warning. If someone’s gonna toss him, it would look a lot better if it was you.” My partner then proceeds to tell me “Well, there’s only a few minutes left and the score is close, so I think I’ll just let him be.”

So I tell him “Fine. If you’re not going to do it, then I will.” Guess I’m on my own tonight.

We get through the fourth quarter and we’re going to overtime. Before the jump ball, I go to the coach and tell him “Look, I don’t want to punish your girls. They’re playing great and they’re right in this thing. But I have already warned you about being off the bench. It’s not fair for the other team to be playing by the rules and me to allow you to blatantly ignore a rule you have been informed about. I don’t want to toss you, but if I observe you off the bench unless it’s to call a timeout or to react to your players, I’m going to have no choice but to give you another T, which will mean automatic ejection.”

His response is (supposedly) extremely contrite and “Yes, I understand, I won’t be a problem.”

Not a minute and a half into overtime, I’m trail next to his bench as his point guard drives the lane. She loses the ball and there is a scrum for the loose ball. My partner calls held ball and the coach goes nuts. He jumps off the bench with his hands waving in the air running towards me.

Whack!

Then I had to wait about a minute for him to take his sweet time getting off the court as he stared me down the whole way.

My partner said after the game he had my back and was all ready to T him up but that I just blew my whistle first.

Right.