Assistants chirping from bench
 

GV game tonight. Visiting head coach is notorious for bitching about just about everything. We pregame this and sure enough, my first whistle, she's all over me. It's honestly laughable. A couple calls later she yells at one of my partners. On the way down the court, I tell her, "Coach, we're going to make the calls and you're going to coach your team."

Still in the first quarter, I call another foul and she's on me again. Lining up for the free throws following my report, I say "That's enough, you're done." The good thing is, she backed off after that.

The bad thing is, both teams had assistants that I swear their only purpose was to "police" us. We're hearing "travel", "three seconds", etc., a lot more often than we should in a varsity game. Here's my question: I've already warned V's coach. Is this "advice" from the assistant on the bench enough to warrant a technical? In the home team's case, their coach hasn't said a word to us all night, then what is the proper way to address chirping from assistants?

"Coach, control your bench."

There's your warning. Next time tag em. Coaches, especially at the varsity level, know their assistants are not to talk to officials.

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To head coach:

- Coach I don't want to hear from your bench. I will talk to you but won't hear from them.

- Coach control your bench.

- Coach anything more the assistants and you'll be getting the tech.

- Coach I'll give you a chance to keep them from commenting then I'm going to be dealing with it.

Assistants do not have the same privileges as head coaches. Period.

Head coach gets one warning about his bench if it's just chatter: "Coach, I'm listening to you, but I'm not listening to your bench." That almost always solves the issue. If I hear anything else, head coach is seatbelted for the rest of the game and I bet he never lets his assistants say another word.

An assistant jumping off the bench or yelling about something is pretty much an automatic T for me. Head coaches should know that their assistants are not allowed to act like that.

I will talk to a respectful assistant during a timeout. During game action, not a chance.

You Promote What You Permit....if you do nothing about it - then, in essence, you are saying that the behavior in question is ok, acceptable, permissible.

Do something about it and blow the whistle. If not, then you really cannot complain to your partners in the locker room after the game.

I'm not a fan of most of the advice so far.

1 - I don't think it's good form to threaten anyone with a technical.

2 - I don't like - especially in this situation - to say something like "I'll listen to you" or "I'll listen to you all night, but not your assistants..." This isn't true. I will not listen to a head coach comment or complain all night.

When it gets time to warn, "Coach, this is your warning. No more."

For the bench, "Coach, control your bench. This is their one warning."

I have said, "you're close to a technical foul." It's not a threat, it's a fact.

I never understand this logic. If a coach cannot handle being told that their behavior or the behavior of others is going to lead to a penalty (like we would warn a lot of other actions), then that is too bad.

The point is to let the HS know that they are the only one with the privileges. That does not mean that we just ignore their unsporting behavior. These comments are strictly to let the assistants know who has more rights. For one it does me no good to try to talk to 5 different people about the same play.

At the end of the day, you have to do what works for you, but I have no problem being real with a coach about what is going to get them in trouble. Because if I do T them, they know where I stand. It is certainly better than the dreaded "stop sign" which IMO does not convey any information other than some standard that all coaches will not understand.

Peace

I had a situation last night where the AC was complaining about a call very loudly. Next time by, I told the coach to control his bench. He was incredulous and actually started laughing at me. I was surprised. He ended up earning a T later in the game, not surprisingly. The AC was on good behavior from there out though, so I guess it accomplished what I hoped it would.

Those coaches are adults... I'm not going to treat them like children. They should know better, so giving them a warning is more than enough.

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I was always taught to say "It will cost you." Or something to that effect. Because if you mention a T and don't follow through, there goes all your credibility

I will follow through. Every time.

In baseball I say, "you're about to be ejected."

If you are willing to do what you say, there's no problem.

You didn't whack a coach laughing at you?

Care to explain why you think that's even close to a good idea?

Good question. I've heard many times on here that you'll never regret whacking a coach but you'll regret the ones that you don't that deserve it. This is one instance that I definitely regret. It wasn't a belly laugh, more like just being a prick if you can imagine the difference. I have no idea why I didn't because I've been pretty quick on the trigger this year.

More like a snicker, if you will?

Yeah, just being condescending. Like I've said on here before, I look a lot younger than I am (sorry for the humblebrag) so I catch a lot of this crap from guys that have never had me. Most of the ones that have had me are pretty good to me. I also want to keep getting more V games, so I don't want to be known as a guy that goes looking for T's.

I'm not a fan of the statement "Coach, control your bench". I'm not telling a coach what to do with is personnel. I will either directly tell an assistant his comments won't be tolerated or I will tell the coach his assistants do not have the same privileges he does. Most of the time my comments are directly to the AC.


What happens after that is on them.

It's not a humblebrag -- it's not an asset when it comes to officiating until you're old enough for people to know you've been around 20 years and still only look like you're in your late 20s.

Our partner last night looked like he's 14. He's a good official and will get even better, but you can tell it affects how people treat him.

I like this. My only thought is if you talk to an assistant he may talk back, then you have a problem that you may have avoided.

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I'm pretty much in the same boat. I'm 23. Many of the coaches around here have been coaching longer than I've been alive. They know who the newbies are and they're going to test them.

They're already talking, that's why I'm addressing them. It won't be a dialogue because I will be gone from the spot before they have a chance to respond.

That's my problem. So I have to be a little quicker otherwise I'll hear it all night. But I also have to be careful because I don't want to lose games because that's my only tool. So I try to be approachable and laid back but have a distinct line in the sand that if it's crossed I won't hesitate. How would I justify to an evaluator whacking a guy for snickering? Do you guys think it would make me look bad or would they know what I was trying to accomplish?

"I asked him to do something and he laughed at me."

I assign and I would *always* back you on this.

That's why I don't like to tell head coaches to "control their bench". There is no room for snickering when you tell the HC "I'm not tolerating any more comments from your assistants."

I tried talking to assistants and I didn't really like the results, but I also think there are infinitely better ways then saying, "control your bench." Too many ways for this to be taken wrong and the HC or AC to say something stupid where you regret even saying anything. I just run by with a question that gets my point across and I'm basically already gone before they've thought of an answer.

I usually tell the HC "Your assistant is about to cost you the box." It lets everyone know I hear the comments and gives the HC a chance to take care of business. I always try to walk the fine line between working with a coach and putting up with too much.

Last night in a close varsity girls game (3 officials)...after the 3rd quarter the crew got together and agreed we needed to have more whistles. The game started getting a little chippy in the middle of the third and even without talking to each other we started calling it a little tighter. A little more than two minutes into the 4th we have a held ball (I am C, table side, tie-up was FT line extended at the arc on the opposite side). Trail hits his whistle quickly on the held ball but immediately heads down court. Just as he turns the player on the team trailing by 3 pulls hard as she pivots her hips and flings the other player a good 6 feet (she does not hit the floor). I immediately call an unsporting T.

After I report the T, her coach asks the usual "What did she do?" I explain and squash his comment that she didn't hear the whistle and tell him "Now, we're done". As the free throws are being shot he keeps expressing his displeasure so I say "Coach, your team is still in this. Do you really want to keep going on about that call?" I knew I had, in my mind, just warned him but gave him the benefit of the doubt that he may not have taken it as a warning. It helped that he had said maybe three things to any of us all game up to that point.

Should I have whacked him...probably. But the point was made and the game finished without incident...and his team lost by 5 after some late free throws were made.

Is she still up there?

Pretty much all of you guys have given some great advice and great things to say that will handle the situation. Thanks! It's fun to learn how other guys handle things in the profession.

I like Rich's advice and I've used this myself at the sub-varsity level where the coaches probably aren't as experienced:

"Coach, your assistant is about to get a technical foul. That is going to cost YOU your coach's box." Provides a reminder of the incentive to keep his assistant's in line. That's probably not needed at the varsity level.

That isn't the type of comment to avoid. What you need to avoid are the ultimatums. "One more word and you're getting a T!" There's nothing wrong with being direct with a coach about how close he or his assistants are getting.

I also agree with BNR, I don't like to tell coach's how to handle their team.

HA!! awesome

Who was it in this forum that sometimes said, "Deal with the organ grinder, not the monkey."?

I think whatever gets the job done is really up to each official. Ultimatums, threats, even not so great language, if it gets you to get a point across I have learned it does not matter what I personally would do or not do based on another individual.

I have been doing this long enough to see an official tell a coach to actually, "Sit down and shut the #### up" and was amazed the coach did just that very thing.

And when we are talking about assistant coaches, this is no different than many aspects of life. When I am dealing with a business, I do not talk to the person that answers the phone as the person that pays for the phone to be in the office in the first place. That is not being disrespectful, that is knowing who you have to get the point across to in the end. That does not mean be disrespectful to anyone, but you have to make it clear what you want to accomplish and the head coach has to know their role. They have privileges that the assistants simply do not have. I think we spend too much time trying to moralize interactions with adults as if we all are coming to the table with the same sensibilities.

Peace

That's an important part to this dynamic. Don't stick around to allow a back-and-forth. Make your statement and keep moving.

I've come to use the more direct approach, the same general approach I use when a player is getting close to the edge.
"Coach, I'm giving you the chance to deal with xxxx, but he's about to cost you if his comments don't stop."

I've tried "coach I need you to control your bench," but some coaches just don't get it. Being clever is fun, but people don't always catch on when you're clever or subtle.

It's amazing what happens when you talk to them like adults and let them know the expectations.