Coach Management

[SMEngmann]

Today I had a rather interesting experience watching a 7th grade girls playoff game. Last night my partner and I (both of us with varsity experience) did a game in which coach A, who is ordinarily an extremely nice guy off the court was sort of a howler, wanting calls, especially non-existant travels and the like. My partner and I both thought the comments were mildly annoying, but nothing to really even warrant a T or a warning. Today after working my two games, that same team played its next playoff game, and I stuck around to help with the book. The two officials both had HS experience, one with a good deal of varsity experience. During the game the same coach was much more of a howler almost openly complaining about cheating by the officials and even cross talking to the other coach, accusing him of being dirty. He was not T'ed nor warned by the officials. Had it been my game, he probably would have earned at least one T.

The reason for this post is that it made me think about my game the night before. Maybe if I stuck the guy with a T when he started to mouth off he would have gotten the message and backed off today. Also, I thought about the officials in a 7th grade game who he might see in the future, typically younger, inexperienced guys who aren't used to handling coaches tantrums. The game was called well, except for the management of the rogue coach, in my opinion, but seeing this game made me re-evaluate how I handled the coach last night and gave me new perspective on the importance of enforcing bench decorum. Not enforcing it strictly is giving the next game's officials a raw deal.