Coaches Biggest Problem With New Rules ...

[SC Official]

All scrimmages are unpaid in SC. In my district they are assigned, however generally we send 5-6 officials to a school so they can rotate in and not work the whole thing. We have to work a minimum of two. Generally schools do 5-7 10:00 running clock periods.

I'm completely opposed to free labor, however many officials (and the schools, of course) don't agree with me.

That being said, I put up with zero BS in scrimmages and have threatened to leave when coaches/players are acting up. Generally everyone behaves themselves in these settings. Only one time have I actually left, when a coach notorious for being a jackass just couldn't control himself. Of course I got the expected, politically correct "you owe it to the schools to be here" spiel, and I couldn't care less.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by SC Official

That being said, I put up with zero BS in scrimmages ...

Thirty-eight years and only one problem, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Notorious Catholic school hothead coach from a different little corner of Connecticut travels for an hour across the state into our local area to scrimmage my local hometown high school, also coached by a notorious hothead.

My hometown hothead knows better than to mess with Bill (every year I was in charge of recruiting "free" officials for his scrimmages), but the visitor hothead doesn't know me from Adam, so he starts whining and yelling to the point where, had it been real game, he would have been charged with a technical foul (from a guy, namely me, who has some pretty thick skin).

I almost pulled the pin on the technical, but then realized that it was only a scrimmage, the score was reset at the beginning of each period, so why bother. I stopped the game and calmly explained to him the futility of a technical foul in a scrimmage and then stated calmly that if he continued with his shenanigans, that despite the futility, I would still charge a technical foul, charge another one if needed, eject him if a second one was charged, only allow his assistant coach to coach, and if he didn't comply, I as the referee, would declare a forfeit, the scrimmage would be over, we would be walking out the door, forcing both teams to continue the scrimmage with no officials.

I'm still not sure if it was a bluff on my part, or not, but it worked.

Enjoy The Marvelettes:

https://youtu.be/7LXQtI4a6ew

[SC Official]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Thirty-eight years and only one problem, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Notorious Catholic school hothead coach from a different little corner of Connecticut travels for an hour across the state into our local area to scrimmage my local hometown high school, also coached by a notorious hothead.

My hometown hothead knows better than to mess with Bill (every year I was in charge of recruiting "free" officials for his scrimmages), but the visitor hothead doesn't know me from Adam, so he starts whining and yelling to the point where, had it been real game, he would have been charged with a technical foul (from a guy, namely me, who has some pretty thick skin).

I almost pulled the pin on the technical, but then realized that it was only a scrimmage, the score was reset at the beginning of each period, so why bother. I stopped the game and calmly explained to him the futility of a technical foul in a scrimmage and then stated calmly that if he continued with his shenanigans, that despite the futility, I would still charge a technical foul, charge another one if needed, eject him if a second one was charged, only allow his assistant coach to coach, and if he didn't comply, I as the referee, would declare a forfeit, the scrimmage would be over, we would be walking out the door, forcing both teams to continue the scrimmage with no officials.

I'm still not sure if it was a bluff on my part, or not, but it worked.

Enjoy The Marvelettes:

https://youtu.be/7LXQtI4a6ew

One time when the visiting coach for a scrimmage of mine was acting up (he was new and wasn't familiar with any of the officials), I told the home coach that we were going to leave if he didn't chill. The home coach reasoned with him and he calmed down.

Some people will say "you should treat it like it's a real game." Well when they start playing normal game rules in scrimmages and pay us like it's a real game, then maybe I'll do that. Otherwise it's a no-win situation to stick around and get chewed on, and giving a technical foul won't make things better; they won't comply since "it's just a scrimmage." Put the ball on the table and go home.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by SC Official

Put the ball on the table and go home.

Better yet, take the ball home with you, like we did when we were pouty kids.