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Old Sat Jan 31, 2015, 01:26am
JeffM JeffM is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Virginia
Posts: 152
Information for parents

Coach,

I would refer the parents to the list of most misunderstood rules.

I don't think I would send them to this website unless they are especially interested. I think it is great that you want a better understanding of how the game is officiated.

I have coached a lot of youth sports (dozens of seasons of basketball, baseball, softball, and soccer).

Your parents should know that officials want to call the game fairly.

Your players should know that officials want to call the game fairly.

Your coaches should know that officials want to call the game fairly.

A lot of players would play better if they didn't worry about the officials. They get mad at the officials, lose focus and then don't play as well. Fans allow their anger at officials to take away from their enjoyment of the game, and more importantly, how they support their child.

Players and coaches use officials as an excuse to lose and then don't give maximum effort.

It might help if you consider officials to be sort of like policemen. Society wants policemen to prevent all of the murders, assaults, and robbery. But, I don't think society wants the policeman to pull over someone who is driving 57 in a 55. At a stop sign with no other cars in sight, is it ok if the driver stops a little in front of the line and doesn't come to a complete stop, but slows to 1 mph?

Another analogy is parenting. Should parents tolerate any misbehavior from their children or give a punishment for every single misbehavior? Different parents have different thresholds.

Officiating at the middle school level requires a lot of judgement.
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