[CMHCoachNRef]

Originally Posted by fiasco

Girls JV game last night. Visiting team only has 7 players, and they are obviously overmatched from the get-go.

It's also pretty obvious that the V coach is wanting to rely on us to keep the game close. He is chirpy all game, and my partner and I give him each a warning in the first half.

With under 30 seconds in the first half, I call a foul and as I'm reporting to the table, he is sitting down and kicks the bleacher with the back of his foot as hard as he can. I probably should have dinged him right then as we had already both warned him, but I didn't. I told him, "Coach, that's your final warning." He told me, "No, I can do that because I'm frustrated with my girls, not at your foul calls."

Yeah, right, but I didn't say anything. I was suffering from a misplaced sense of sympathy for his girls, who didn't even have an assistant coach to rely on if this clown got tossed. Shouldn't have been thinking that way, but I was nonetheless.

Third quarter, his girls are actually starting to make a comeback. This is girls JV basketball, so we're not calling every single handcheck, but we've called a few. One on particular play, the defender rides one of this coach's girls from the top of the three point line to the baseline with her forearm in her side. It was not in my area, and my partner chose to pass on it. As she reached the baseline, she traveled, and my partner got it. (she traveled because of her momentum, not the handcheck, BTW).

Coach is visibly upset and calls a timeout just to give it to us. His voice is definitely raised, but he's not saying anything out of line. He tells us that he knows there is handchecking going on out there, and we're choosing to ignore it. He's partially right, and I really do take his comments to heart as he's talking to us.

But, as he walks away, he yells loud enough for at least the first 6 or 7 rows to hear "SO DO YOUR JOB!!!"

I whacked him.

What do you think?

Originally Posted by JoeT

Well, get ready to attack me, I guess...

I know how you all hate us coaches sometimes, and we often deserve it. I'm not condoning the coach's reaction in this situation, but please try to understand where it came from and to own some of your own mismanagement that contributed to the situation you describe. By your own description, you're picking and choosing to set aside certain rules and calls for whatever reasons you have. Then, from this coach's perspective, you choose to enforce another rule that hurts his team. That is tremendously frustrating. As a coach who regularly works with very underpowered teams, I am painfully aware how a choice not to call handchecks ("because it's a JV game") gives a distinct advantage to the team that was more powerful in the first place.

If it's a handcheck - on my kid or on theirs - please call it. I often feel that my choice to teach legal "keep-your-hands-off-and-move-your-feet" defense puts my kids at a disadvantage in games where officials decide that a hand (or armbar) on the hip is going to be OK that day.
Not to mention, I've had at least one situation where this was happening, and I earned a tech for chirping about it. Nevertheless, after the tech, the officials started getting the opponents' hands off. I hate having to "take one" just to get the game called by the rules, but I have to admit, getting that tech improved the game for my players.

Fiasco,
First of all, I am definitely not known for being anything but patient with coaches, BUT, I must confess, I would have issued the "T" long before you did.

These are the situations that drive coaches CRAZY -- ESPECIALLY if they are overmatched!!! You and your partner know that a team is overmatched, yet your partner allows the opponent to ride the player for TWENTY FEET and BOTH your partner and YOU -- perhaps a little too much ball watching, here in my opinion -- PASS???

I have done my share of girls subvarsity games in the past. Some of these games are ugly no matter what we do to avoid it. But, in this case, by allowing the team that was dominating the game to ride a player all the way to the baseline (what if the point guard really wanted to get to the basket, but the defender's hands/arms pushed her to the baseline/endline instead?), you and your partner were at least partially responsible for the situation. If BOTH of you passed on the FOUL, why not pass on the travel, too???

In my opinion (I WAS NOT THERE, this is JUST AN EDUCATED GUESS), you did not issue a technical foul because you were not comfortable doing so, earlier. My guess is that you do not feel that the game was well played. You also did not think it was particularly well officiated, either.

Try to keep your focus. Call handchecks when they cause the dribbler to go in a particular direction -- particularly if the hand stays in contact with the dribbler. Make foul calls to keep the game in control. It is up to the coaches to teach the players to play within the rules. It is NOT our jobs to modify the rules because the coaches have failed to teach them.

Just my $.02 from a coach with over 30 years experience and a referee for well over a decade.