And One Technical Foul ...

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by SC Official

Too many high school officials preach nonsense about avoiding technical fouls like your life depends on it.

Forty years ago, when I first started out, I gave out a lot of technical fouls. Part of the reason was because I could (hypnotized by this new power that I held). Another reason was that back then my high school assigner also assigned a few mens recreation leagues, games that were mostly assigned to inexperienced officials and we all know about the crap that occurs in those games (especially with an inexperienced official making some rookie bad calls).

As I progressed to subvarsity high school games, I noticed that my subvarsity partners and the varsity officials that I observed seemed to less frequently charge technical fouls.

One reason, and not a good one, was that (here in Connecticut) coaches "vote" officials into the state tournament. I never subscribed to this idea. I guess that these lenient officials didn't realize that while one voting coach may appreciate the "free pass", the opposing voting coach may not, believing that officials should "take care of business".

Another reason was that many veteran varsity officials prided themselves on their game management skills, using their superior communication and "people" skills to manage coaches "on the cusp".

For me, now in my fortieth year, I do pride myself on my game management, communication, and "people" skills, but also know the value of using technical fouls as one of the many tools that I have at my disposal to manage the game.