As others have said, I stopped officiating and started coaching HS ball a couple seasons ago. I have never told officials "I am an official" and never will. Most of the local guys know me. I keep my mouth shut for the most part. I did apologize to a crew in the second half of a game, and told them that they should have T'd me for a comment I made at halftime - and they really should have.

Having said that, I have been very surprised by the comments from officials to me as a coach. Things that I would never say to a coach...perfect example: my defender called for a block. I felt he had LGP and so asked the official (did not know him, from another area) what my player did wrong. Response was "He wasn't set. Gotta be set." I never said a word - just looked at him and shook my head. He then said "Maybe you should try reading a rule book every now and then, Coach." And that's when the fight started...no, I just bit my tongue and said nothing.

Another example...close game. Under 30 seconds left.Our throw-in from our own endline. Player throws the throw-in pass to point guard in back court. Official calls backcourt violation. I ask him to discuss it with his crew and make sure. His response: "I have been reffing twice as long as both of them combined. Asking them would be almost as bad as asking you. Now sit down and shut up."

So as officials, we do sometimes cause some of our own problems.

Exactly! That's the part that I couldn't wrap my ahead around, he knows what it is like to officiate, and he was my partner for 4 games, and then to blow up like that. . .

Hadn't seen you post in several months. Wondered what happened to you.

Went over to the Dark Side. They offered me cookies.

Out of curiosity what level are you coaching? Reason why I'm asking is I'd raise an eyebrow at the varsity level for those type of comments. If it's at the lower levels with potentially an inexperienced partner I can see that type of rules butchering with responses (not that I'm excusing it). For the guy who noted 'I've been reffing longer than these two have been alive' comment I wonder if your game was being officiated by 'that guy' :mad:

'That guy' is an infuriating partner to work with and I bet even worse to be a coach in a game he officiates when you know the rules

Those comments both came in boys HS JV games. But here the crews do a JV/V doubleheader each night, so it was the same crew on the Varsity game.

Any time a coach starts a sentence or a phrase with "You..." it will never end well. These are borderline automatic warnings, if not T's, for me.

Had a game this season where a coach said "You can't call the armbar if..." I tuned him out after that and said that's enough. He didn't shut up. Whack.

Some coaches, officials or otherwise, just don't get it and this is the only way they'll learn.

Seems reasonable.

I've coached a church/recreational league the past 2 years. For the most part, the officials have done a terrific job. They are volunteering, so I'm not going to criticize anything. I have found myself giving the travel or other violation signal here and there but not too bad. This year, I had the 1/2 grade where we don't keep score and the only real issue we had was a lack of rules knowledge on a couple of things. They were calling violations for the thrower-in stepping on the line (still OOB) and I got with them after the game and got that corrected.

I spoke with the league guy and I think I might take over as the supervisor next year. We will need to improve our rules knowledge and look just a little more professional.

Not to derail the thread, but does anyone have any brand suggestions for black shorts? I'd like the guys to wear the same and I like the UA, but was wondering about other brands.

That's micro-managing, imo.

My thought is that this is church/wreck league and you are taking this WAY too seriously and looking to show who's in charge with controlling what volunteer officials wear.

He said they are volunteers -- I was assuming he was asking so he could make a big order and give them to the volunteers. I would expect any league getting volunteer referees would be supplying anything they were required to wear.

Like others noted: they're volunteers, so unless you're planning on buying the shorts I'd steer clear here.

I agree and I was going to type something similar, but I thought that would go without saying.

Take something too seriously and require certain attire and you better pay for it or reimburse guys.

While watching this NCAA finals, a commercial comes on with reggie m and referee---the script had the ref whistle reggie for a food stain on his shirt---could you believe they had the ref use a quasi PC signal and blowing a silver metal pea whistle?
Then next,this viagra commersh comes on and they have the woman dressed in nondescript cheap looking blue illegal jersey number.
OMG hollywood really mis-represents officials.

Excuse me from the above digress, regarding your uniform shorts that is a fine idea I would suggest all black with no inordinately large vis logo athletic long pants instead of shorts.