Scrimmages

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

Then we have the coaches who spend more time complaining about the officiating

Several years ago I was requested to work a free scrimmage by my hometown high school (I coached middle school basketball in the school system). I was good friends with the athletic director and the coach. I always blocked off this school's games due to a perceived conflict of interest, so I was always pleased to work these scrimmages because it was my only chance to see my hometown high school team in action, it always having several of my former students on the roster.

The hometown coach invited an out of area team to the scrimmage. The opposing coach was one of his "old school" drinking buddies and the out of area coach started complaining from the get go, implying, but just short of saying, it was a "home job". Imagine that, a "home job" in a scrimmage. I think that there may have been some type of "alpha male" bar bet on the line. This was the closest that I ever came to charging a coach with a scrimmage technical foul, and even possibly ejecting a coach during a scrimmage.

Lots of oral warnings, no written warning back then, eventually calmed him down, but just barely. I had to use every game management tool on my toolbelt, except a technical foul, to get through the game. I may have even said, "Hey coach, don't make me charge you with a technical foul in a scrimmage". As we often say, "Did I regret not charging the technical foul as I drove home?" No, but only because it was just a scrimmage (points not counting for anything) and I knew that a technical foul or an ejection really wouldn't carry any lasting weight, especially with the coach being outside my local assigning area, on top of this being an off-the-books unassigned game.