And One Technical Foul ...

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

In Indiana alone ... you have to report every technical foul given and the reasoning. It affects their being able to host or properly get certain privileges if they get so many of these actions. You have to fill out those reports.

It's not just paperwork, it's all about accountability.

Here in Connecticut all ejections are to be reported to the CIAC (state interscholastic sports governing body) via our assigner (first to assigner who forwards it to the state, never directly from official to state). CIAC then contacts the school principal who (with the athletic director) is responsible to make sure that the ejected coach or player doesn't participate in any basketball game at any level until the player or coach sits out one game of the level in which the player or coach was ejected.

In addition, here in my little comer of Connecticut, all unsporting technical fouls (player and/or coaches) are to be reported to our assigner. He may contact the athletic director and/or principal depending on the severity of the unsporting technical foul, or the cumulative number of unsporting technical fouls during the season.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

It was shocking coming from the person it came from ... He should have known better. I am actually very disappointed to be asked to not report something that clearly happened in front of others.

It's bad enough to be thrown under the bus in for something that happened in front of a few people, it's far worse to be thrown under the bus for something that happened in front of partners, coaches, players, athletic director, site director, trainers, police officer in the corner, principal, fans, parents, and the press.

What happens to an official's credibility when something like this (report quenched) happens? Everybody (officials, coaches, etc.) knows everybody in the world of local/state high school basketball, and word spreads quickly.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

It's bad enough to be thrown under the bus in for something that happened in front of a few people, it's far worse to be thrown under the bus for something that happened in front of partners, coaches, players, athletic directer, site directer, trainers, poice officer in the corner, principal, fans, parents, and the press.

What happens to an official's credibility when something like this (report quenched) happens? Everybody (officials, coaches, etc.) knows everybody in the world of local/state high school basketball, and word spreads quickly.

To be fair, I was not thrown under the bus. I was asked not to file a report based on a ruling I made. I still filed the report and it was too late to not file the report. If not confronted in the doorway I would not have done it so fast.

I did not mention that part of the story in my comments here because it should have been enough to get throw out, but when you confront me and act like "We should talk" that was too much for me. I even said to the coach when he tried to talk to me in the doorway, "So you want to talk so you can lie about what I said and misrepresent the conversation....not me." If that had never happened, I might have waited. But I contacted the assignor before I left the building and he got back to me while I was in the car and asked, "Could you have walked away." I said no with a few sentences and started writing my report.

I do not say any of this in order to call out the supervisor, I am saying this because I think we are the last people they think of when these games are going on and only consider that they do not want to give us any support when the participants act badly. They think we just walk in and do games and do not realize all the preparation that we do before getting to a game and sometimes the conversations afterward.

Peace

[Rich]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

IT was shocking coming from the person it came from (that is all I will say). But if the coach of the other team saw this happen as well as other participants, I am the one getting in trouble, not the assignor. I have known it to happen to officials that did not file the report when they ejected a player.



In Indiana alone (and this incident was in Illinois BTW) you have to report every technical foul given and the reasoning. It affects their being able to host or properly get certain privileges if they get so many of these actions. You have to fill out those reports. And I would have never thought to even eject the coach if he did not approach me. He should have known better. I am actually very disappointed to be asked to not report something that clearly happened in front of others.



Peace

We have a "loss of coaching box" report. So player technicals get no report, but bench technicals do.


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[SC Official]

Originally Posted by Rich

We have a "loss of coaching box" report. So player technicals get no report, but bench technicals do.


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These stupid reports are part of the problem. Too many high school officials just don't want to do paperwork and would rather ignore the behavior.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by SC Official

These stupid reports are part of the problem. Too many high school officials just don't want to do paperwork and would rather ignore the behavior.

Many just don't complete the report.

As an assigner I want to know when a coach gets whacked. I'd better hear from the official and not just the school.


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[sdoebler]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

IT was shocking coming from the person it came from (that is all I will say). But if the coach of the other team saw this happen as well as other participants, I am the one getting in trouble, not the assignor. I have known it to happen to officials that did not file the report when they ejected a player.

In Indiana alone (and this incident was in Illinois BTW) you have to report every technical foul given and the reasoning. It affects their being able to host or properly get certain privileges if they get so many of these actions. You have to fill out those reports. And I would have never thought to even eject the coach if he did not approach me. He should have known better. I am actually very disappointed to be asked to not report something that clearly happened in front of others.

Peace

This is truly shocking IMO and pretty poor support from the assigner. In all honesty if an assigner told me that I would tell him that I had no interest in working for him if that was the type of atmosphere he was going to provide for his officials.

Our state association has said these are the specific types of intractions that they want to be reported, because if they don't get a report there is basically nothing they can do.

[SC Official]

High school assigners asking officials to ignore unsporting behavior or not file ejection reports with the state does not surprise me one inkling. These are the same assigners who won't try to get their officials a nominal pay increase because "the schools have no money" and they are scared to death of losing their gigs.

It is funny, I always hear how "college officials" let coaches get away with so much because "It's a coaches' game," and while that latter part is a fact, I have caught FAR more flack for handling business in high school games than college games over my career.

At the high school level I have had partners try to get me to overturn my T's and ejections, I have had partners kiss the coach's rear end the entire game clearly undermining me, I have had assigners question my T's to the nth degree, I have worked with partners who won't handle business because "I don't want to do paperwork" and "These fans didn't come to see us." And yet, I continuously hear preaching about how high school sports are an "extension of the classroom" and we have such an important role to play. It is a bunch of hypocrisy, is all I have to say.

At the college level, while there is plenty of emphasis on being a good communicator (just because you call T's does not mean you are a bad communicator - it is a rule in the book) and making sure your T's show up on film, the reality is that if you are unwilling to handle business, you will have problems in your games and you will not last very long with that reputation. I know of officials who have allowed coaches to carry on the entire game - then the usually well-behaved coach on the other bench starts acting up and calls the assigner after the game asking why the crew allowed the other coach to get away with murder during the game. There was a college game in my area that had a bench-clearing brawl earlier this year - the crew came out of it with one technical foul and no ejections. How do you think this went over for them after the game? I have caught more flack at the college level for letting coaches and players get away with too much than for having a quick trigger. Meanwhile I am just as, if not more tolerant, at the high school level and it seems every T I call has to be taken personally and made into a big charade.

Also, every time I have called a technical foul on a college coach and he calls the assigner to complain about it/me after the game, the assigner asks him for the film. And either the coach doesn't send it in (I wonder why?) or the film very clearly shows that it was justified. I have had high school assigners, on the other hand, automatically jump to the conclusion that something must have been handled improperly by me without even looking at the tape.

All that to say - none of what JRut experienced with the idiot coach and his spineless assigner shocks me one bit.