Almost Met My No-T Goal
 

Before the season I set a goal for myself to have no "preventable" T's on coaches. I wanted to improve my communication with the coaches and be able to avoid T's by being a better communicator. I almost made it...three weeks to go but I won't be able to say I met my goal.

Boys JV. Competitive game most of the way. These two schools used to be rivals...not sure what the rivalry is like these days. Keep in mind that where I work, JV games don't count for anything in the standings...they are meant to get the end of the varsity bench some playing time.

Final minute, Team B leads Team A by 3. Team A shoots, and the ball rebounds high off the rim. B1 jumps more or less straight up for the rebound, and A1 jumps toward B1 from about four feet away. A1 gets a piece of B1's arm and gets body on the way through too. I call the foul on A1 from the L tableside, right in front of A's bench. Coach A loses his s#^* as I point out our shooter to my partner (bonus situation). I head toward the table and am about to report the foul but he's still incredulous. I give him the stop sign but he runs right through it, and I T him. He's still yelling after the T but I've tuned him out by now.

I think Team B missed three of the four free throws that followed, but Team B ended up winning by 3.

Can't decide the best part. It's either that my assignor was there to witness the whole thing or on the way out Team A's varsity coach joked (I think) to me that I should have thrown Coach A out!

It sucks that I won't be able to meet my goal but at least it was a no-doubter.

If by "preventable," you mean that you could have prevented it, I think your goal is still alive. From what you describe, nothing you could have done would have prevented the coach from earning that.

Your goal should be communicating better, not no T's.

Fair point. I'll take it! ;)

I hear what you're saying. I think I've been a little quick on the trigger in years past, so that's where my goal came from. I think I've been much better this year at communicating with the coaches.

I don't feel bad about the T at all...Coach definitely earned it.

T's are going to happen and no matter how you set a goal like that, you will be put in situations you need to take action and talking is not going to always work. Like last Friday I had a kid throw and elbow after a basket was made. It would have been a normal foul, but if a T was not called we would have had further problems.

This all goes in cycles too. If you just do your job, a lot of the time they will happen and other times they will not happen. They are not always preventable.

Peace

That's like having a goal of having no timing errors during the season. It is beyond your control. Just penalize when the unsporting behavior occurs and don't worry about it.