Emailing a coach

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

Next time, don't email him. Send him a Candy Gram.

Delivered by a Land Shark.

MTD, Sr.

[RedAndWhiteRef]

I don't know if I'd email the coach directly, but if I had a good enough relationship with the AD I might send him something like "Your coach wanted clarification on this rule, here it is, pass it along to him." I don't see any harm in that.

[Adam]

Just what positive would you expect to come from this?

[BigCat]

Originally Posted by RedAndWhiteRef

I don't know if I'd email the coach directly, but if I had a good enough relationship with the AD I might send him something like "Your coach wanted clarification on this rule, here it is, pass it along to him." I don't see any harm in that.

If the coach WANTS clarification, fine. But sending him the rule to prove your right and he is wrong is a mistake. And phrasing it as you have above wont soften the blow if the coach hasnt specifically asked you to provide him the rule. Just not a good idea, imo

[packersowner]

Let me preface this by saying, I think it completely depends on the relationship you have with a school or coaches, but where I work where its a different gym every night and coaches are always coming and going. But that being said...

To me this is no different than a coach saying, "I'll send you the video tomorrow so you can look at it"

If the video proves you're wrong, he/she is an ass for sending it.
If the video proves you're right, he/she won't send it and they're an ass for making that comment.

I'd rather just move on to the next game. More than likely if that coach is that passionate about the call, he's going to ask one of his "reffing" buddies and more than likely he will either get squared away or have a whole different perspective of why the call was missed.

[VaTerp]

Originally Posted by loners4me

Did a game HS game last night. Coach said we applied rule wrong and swore he was right.

When I got home I looked up his email from HS website with a copied/pasted NFHS rule to prove I was correct.

Thoughts?

In general its a bad idea IMO. The game is over, move on. Simply note the rules book reference and politely share it with the coach the next time you see him if its that big of a deal to you.

If you really feel the need to communicate the rule to the coach immediately then go through your assigner. As others have said check your local listings but I think thats sound advice anywhere. Here our assigner has explicitly said NOT to contact coaches directecly about things that happen in games. We are to go through him. This helps with consistency in messaging and avoids a personal back and forth between a coach and individual officials. Our rules interpreter would also likely get involved in rules application questions.

That said, there are some of us who based on experience and personal relationships with certain coaches could do something like this without issue. But that doesnt sound like the case here. I would strongly advise to let it go or go through the assinger.

Originally Posted by packersowner

.

To me this is no different than a coach saying, "I'll send you the video tomorrow so you can look at it"

If the video proves you're wrong, he/she is an ass for sending it.
If the video proves you're right, he/she won't send it and they're an ass for making that comment.

I disagree with this. Rules application is entirely different than a judgement call, which is the likely source of a video reference. There should be little to no subjectivity with rules application where on judgement calls, even with video (especially the video of a HS game which will lack HD and multiple angles), there will be a degree of subjectivity.

Also, I don't see why a coach has to be an ass in both situations. Sure I've heard coaches say that in a condescending way. But I've also had coaches who have come up to me and say, "I saw the tape on the play I was bitchin about the other week and you were right." If the tape proves you kicked a call I don't think that makes the coach an ass. I think it means we kicked the call. And if it proves us right which happens more often then not, then the coach shouldnt have a problem admitting he was wrong.

Starting this season, my association has an agreement with coaches to share game video through Hudl. The purpose is purely to use it as a teaching tool for officials. Some officials do worry that coaches will want to use it against us but we had two meetings with a group of coaches to address this and it hasnt been an issue thus far. This is somewhat OT and probably worthy of its own thread but I think HS officials should be embracing video as a tool not as a reason to be advesarial with coaches.

[packersowner]

Originally Posted by VaTerp

I disagree with this. Rules application is entirely different than a judgement call, which is the likely source of a video reference. There should be little to no subjectivity with rules application where on judgement calls, even with video (especially the video of a HS game which will lack HD and multiple angles), there will be a degree of subjectivity.

Also, I don't see why a coach has to be an ass in both situations. Sure I've heard coaches say that in a condescending way. But I've also had coaches who have come up to me and say, "I saw the tape on the play I was bitchin about the other week and you were right." If the tape proves you kicked a call I don't think that makes the coach an ass. I think it means we kicked the call. And if it proves us right which happens more often then not, then the coach shouldnt have a problem admitting he was wrong.

Starting this season, my association has an agreement with coaches to share game video through Hudl. The purpose is purely to use it as a teaching tool for officials. Some officials do worry that coaches will want to use it against us but we had two meetings with a group of coaches to address this and it hasnt been an issue thus far. This is somewhat OT and probably worthy of its own thread but I think HS officials should be embracing video as a tool not as a reason to be advesarial with coaches.

I'm all for video as a teaching/learning tool. I have asked coaches for their video to go back and watch a game. My experience is that if a coaches uses the line, "I'll send you the video" on a judgement call, he's doing it to be an ass. Likewise I try to never say, "you'll see I'm right when you watch the film." It's just counter productive because you're right and we all have witnessed watching clips here, even with good video it's not always definitive.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by packersowner

I'm all for video as a teaching/learning tool. I have asked coaches for their video to go back and watch a game. My experience is that if a coaches uses the line, "I'll send you the video" on a judgement call, he's doing it to be an ass. Likewise I try to never say, "you'll see I'm right when you watch the film." It's just counter productive because you're right and we all have witnessed watching clips here, even with good video it's not always definitive.

I would just tell him to send the video to the assigner. I have no interest in seeing a small clip from my game, which is all I would get. If the call is really that bad, he'll send it and the assigner will let me know. That's if a high school coach tries to pull it.

Any other level (I don't currently work college), I'm done talking.

Back to the OP, I'm going to reiterate what others have said. Unless this was friendly banter (in which case this post likely wouldn't have happened), there is absolutely zero good that can come from such an email. Only bad.

Let me repeat: only bad things can happen from an email like this.

[VaTerp]

Originally Posted by packersowner

I'm all for video as a teaching/learning tool. I have asked coaches for their video to go back and watch a game. My experience is that if a coaches uses the line, "I'll send you the video" on a judgement call, he's doing it to be an ass. Likewise I try to never say, "you'll see I'm right when you watch the film." It's just counter productive because you're right and we all have witnessed watching clips here, even with good video it's not always definitive.

I don't disagree. I really like what my association is doing this year and having the coach's send the tape to us on Hudl, which is managed by our VP who oversees all evaluations, ratings, and the committee I serve on that helps elevate non varsity officials to varsity.

I guess I just took issue with "if the video proves your wrong, he's an ass for sending it." But I understand and agree with your overall point.

Bottom line to me is that there is substantial benefit in further rules clarification as in the OP and also in evaluating game tape. But handling it the way the OP did is NOT the way to go about it.

Handle this through your assigner/association.

[RedAndWhiteRef]

Originally Posted by BigCat

If the coach WANTS clarification, fine. But sending him the rule to prove your right and he is wrong is a mistake. And phrasing it as you have above wont soften the blow if the coach hasnt specifically asked you to provide him the rule. Just not a good idea, imo

Exactly. The hypothetical quotation implied that the coach asked. I just think it's a better idea to go through the AD in that situation.