Pain in th a-- coach

[Ranger]

At least a small part of the umpire mission is to be a teacher. A lot of suggeastions have been made on this topic, and some are quite good. More experience in coach/umpire confrontations will help develop better results. But let us not forget that lower level coaches are usually volunteers with little or no experience or knowledge of the rules. Care must be taken by the umpire to not appear to take sides, but the umpire needs to be alert to teaching coaches certain basic rules which includes appropriate conduct and behavior.

Set very high standards with respect to coach confrontations and on field conduct. Minimize their on the field discussions. Make this standard quite clear as limits are set by the umpire. Eject the hostile coaches that choose not to accept your leadership.

This approach not only pays great dividends for the conduct and civility of that game, it has the added benefit of potential improvement of their next game, even if another new umpire should show up. Ultimately you are doing the league and parents a big favor as well.