Coach perceptions of what we call

[zebraman]

I've attended 2 camps so far this summer one in June and one last weekend.

At the first camp back in June, the D-1 college coach of the host school was brought in to talk to the officials. Towards the end of his talk, he took Q & A and one of the questions posed to him was "what bugs you and your colleagues most about the way your games are called by officials?"

His first response was that officials who do not respond to valid questions drive him and the other coaches nuts.

His second response was that the game is too rough. He feels that overly aggressive play is allowed and that physical play hurts the quick and skilled players and also makes the game less entertaining to watch.

His third response was that the offense is given too many "benefit of the doubt" calls.

The second camp was this last weekend. The head coach of the hosting 4A high school was brought in to talk to the officials. A similar question was asked, "what calls get coaches most upset?"

His first comment was that he gets upset when some officials will not talk to him when he asks a valid question about a call.

He then said that there are too many charges that get called as blocks. He said that officials call a P/C foul when the defender moves 2 inches even though the offense initiated the contact. Then when he asks the ref about the call, the official says, "the defender moved to the side." His point was that it is impossible to stay completely still like a statue and that officials often miss the intent of that rule which is to reward good defense.

His last point was that we allow games to get too rough.

We have heard all this before (and I agreed with them both) but I found it interesting how similar their answers were even though one was a HS coach and one was D-1 college coach.

Z