Coach Management

[zebraman]

Originally posted by CYO Butch

Zebraman, from my perspective on the sideline, your approach works wonders. While I've never been T'd in 12 years (more or less) of coaching, I've certainly found that an official who will talk to me respectfully when my frustration level is running high, will help me settle down. It also improves my ability to help my kids by getting my head back in the game and off of individual events within the game.
I think many time coaches can't let go of something (like a call they didn't like), then subsequent events just add to it. I bet that your kind of intervention can be pretty effective at helping them to let go and get back to their jobs.

Butch,
It really is amazing how well this works. At my last state tourney, there was this one coach who was just being a crazy man in his first two games. None of the refs dealt with his ranting and yelling which I think really hurt them in their evaluations (they all got sent home quickly). I had him in my third game and the first time he started wandering and yelling I just walked over to him and said, "hey coach, what did you see that I didn't see?" He said something about his player getting pushed and all I said was, "I didn't see it that way coach, but I'll keep an eye on that. But coach, I really need you to ask in a respectful way rather than running out of your box and yelling OK?" He just smiled sheepishly and said, "OK, sorry." He was a complete gentleman the rest of the game and just asked legit questions and stayed in his box.

Now it doesn't work that well everytime, but I guarantee you that the game would have been a nightmare (or a quick T) had I not gone over and addressed him respectfully right away.

Z