I never said or implied that communication was not a big deal. Only that it may take on different meanings for coaches and officials. e.g. I am not going to spend my entire game talking to coaches like some officials (in high school and college) will, and the reality is that there are some coaches who take everything so personally, especially at the high school level, that they will think you are standoffish and/or a poor communicator in general if you're not willing to chit-chat at every opportunity.

Totally agree. Just looked at an email that was about a situation with an incident that I had with a coach (he was T'd up by my partner) some two seasons ago. He was given a T and wanted to continuously relitigate the issue with me during the game and I refused. I was trying to keep him in the game and told him as such. He took it personally and basically cursed us off the court and threatened me with the, "You will never work here again.....blah...blah....blah." Well, I worked there the very next season with the same official that gave him a T (a legend in our area) and we had no incident at all in the next game. BTW, that coach has been fired. I am not sure they won 5 games in the last two seasons. If I had listened to the coach, I would have communicated with him and likely he would have said something that would have got him ejected from that game. I was trying to just officiate a blowout and get out with as little strife as possible. I was not going to win by more communication because the communication we did previously obviously did not work.

Peace

I definitely wouldn't put HS coaches in the same category as college coaches when it comes to professionalism, but I will be using HS coaches as Guinea pigs for self-improvement.

I am an official who falls into the "good play-caller" category, and I know I can be a hard-a$$ when provoked. What was interesting about the D1 coach was that he acknowledged that he can be a pain-in-the-a$$, but he said he has great respect for those officials who know how to diffuse those situations without turning them ugly. In fact, he said he would rather get a technical foul than have an official say something nasty or unprofessional to him. That hit home for me because I rarely T up coaches, but I often engage in combative conversations with knucklehead coaches.

Between what the D3 supervisor and D1 coach shared with us, I am personally dedicating myself to finding new techniques to communicate with hard-to-deal-with coaches.

Being a good communicator does not mean chatting all game. And the D1 coach and D3 supervisor both said as much. The D1 coach said there's needs to be a point where an official says, in a professional manner, that enough is enough. And when that warning isn't heeded, then you popped the coach with a T.

But let's not pretend there aren't officials out there, HS and college, who don't come into games with the attitude that they are not going to have any communication with the coaches, because there are.

1) I agree, but there are officials who think they need to explain themselves (or worse, their partners) every time they go beside the coach. Or not even explain themselves, just have a chummy conversation. And while most coaches don't expect that you will talk to them the whole game, there are some who do have just that expectation, and then when you shut down the communication because it's about to cross the line, that just makes things worse.

2) Agree again, but let's also not pretend like there aren't officials out there, HS and college, who spend the majority of the game conversing with coaches, for whatever reasons they may have. I would argue that this is just as detrimental as not communicating at all.

There aren't many, if any, absolutes in this business. Everything has a balance that each of us has to find. That's why it's an art.

That is the main benefit I get working with high school coaches. I learn what not to say most of the time because saying something that is "real" often does not work. College coaches are easy to deal with compared to most high school coaches because college coaches would never dare do certain things as a norm and expect a different response.

I am a great communicator IMO when I am dealing with thicker-skinned coaches or coaches that take things in stride. When I am dealing with guys that have a stick up their behind when you actually answer their question, I am not that good with them. Because I feel I am a grown ass man and I am going to talk to people as if they are adults. I am not going to lie to them or try to give them some line so they leave me alone. And I am going to speak when I have time to speak. Much of the time in a basketball game, I have not much time to speak. College coaches at least understand reasonableness when you are trying to give them information. At least that is the case in my experience. Rarely do I even have to come close to giving a T in a college game. I do not give many in high school games, but I have to think about it more often for sure.

Peace

Coaches Meeting ...
 

We have an annual new rules meeting for coaches that is run by our local interpreter, with a few of his assistants (officials in a non leadership roles aren't invited). It's not a time to spout off about bad officiating, or poor communicating, but rather, a time for coaches to ask rule based questions. This meeting goes over quite well. I wish that it were better attended.

Jeff:

I could not agree with you more on the general differences between boys'/girls' H.S. basketball coaches and men's college basketball coaches.

Women's college basketball coaches is altogether different. Male coaches are like men's college coaches, and female coaches are like boys'/girls' coaches.

The thing that I would like all to remember is that what you and I agree on are generalizations. Not all H.S. and female women's college coaches are pains in the tuchus.

MTD, Sr.

I have been part of many of these meetings, where officials are invited or brought into coaches meetings. Pretty standard fair around these parts. IME

* Coaches at these meetings want info re POints of Emphasis and balls and strikes type stuff.
* HS coaches do not care and are often put off if we want to talk about protocol or fashion police type items. They want us in the room to find out or ask questions about how game will be called. They see the rest as officials issues or. Administrative stuff that is not their domain.
* Meetings go better when speaking officials gives 2-3 clear points and explanations and ask for questions re those points. Long sit and get type sessions or open forums can become problematic.

A quick follow up..We had this meeting the other day and the coaches were focused on the new "Conduct/Behavior Warning" and the rules and POE. Not much about complaining:)

One coach asked a question I would like to get your feedback on:

As officials, what are 3 traits in coaches that you respect?

Bo Ryan came and talked to our association many years ago. I think it was his first or second year at Wisconsin. My takeaway was that they wanted consistency at both ends of the floor. They adjust to the officiating and wanted to rely on same calls for similar plays. Nothing new or earth shattering but it was cool to get his perspective.

Well, we had a "kind of" coaches meeting at one of my associations on Tuesday. The problem is only one longtime coach who belongs to the officiating association show up. Every other coach that was asked canceled for some reason.

The best part was this particular coach was a long time head coach and AD and now an assistant coach after retiring from his last head coaching position. He is a great guy and gets it and is also the Executive Director of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association. So he has a perspective of the entire game. He gave some great incite and unfortunately for him was the only voice, but was beneficial to us.

But this was a rare situation. Usually, the coaches have a bitch session about what officials do not do right or have expectations of what we should do that is not realistic (like communicating with us during games).

Peace