Two nights ago, doing middle school 8th grade boys game to help out the assignor who is a friend. Had a partner I've never seen before, but he did a pretty good job.

Third quarter, visitor A1 tries to dribble through 2 defenders who were both in legal guarding position. He trips over the foot of one, grabs the ball and falls to the floor. I call a travel. Coach reacts like someone just shot his dog. This was the first noise out of him all night. He runs out on the floor, yelling and screaming at me. First he says the call was "garbage", then he says I am "garbage". T time.

As I walk to the table to report the T, he yells that I am "a pathetic excuse for a human being." T time revisited. I inform him he is ejected and must leave the gym. Of course he wants to stand there and yell some more. I tell assistant coach that I strongly suggest he get the coach out of the gym right now or the game will be forfeit. He nods and forces the guy to leave. The assistant was great the rest of the game, by the way.

After the game, my partner and I were leaving together and this jerk was, of course, out in the parking lot. He starts yelling again. He is about 50 pounds overweight and I yell back that it must take him a long time to drive home because of having to stop at the truck scales.

That shut him up. I think I'll tell that one to Dave.

I had a coach tell me the other night, after the game, that he has never seen worse officiating. I thanked him for his comments and walked off. I then heard him tell his players that they played horribly, so I didn't really take too much stock into his comments to me.

My question is, how do you handle comments like the one above?

By the way, Mark kudos for the comment, in my opinion once a personal attack is made all bets are off, and you made your comment off the court, ie off the job.

I had a coach tell me (very sarcastically) that I did a great job calling travelling and 3 seconds.... and not much else.

I told him thanks and walked away....

Coach, if I was any good, would I be doing your games? ;)

Last October
 

During Girls' season, I officiated "the most poorly officiated game in twenty years" for one Coach.

mick

This is great, I will tuck this away for future use.

four Dave-isms
 

Some comments Dave has used to coaches who say they never have seen a worse officiated game:

1) Thanks Coach, coming from a real expert like you, that means a lot. (I use this one on occasion)

2) Yeah, I'll put that in my diary. (This one is said just dripping with sarcasm)

3) Not possible - it's too much of a coincidence that the worst officiating job and the worst coaching job would happen in the same game. (I think this one is his best)

4) You think that one was bad? Wait until the next time I have you guys - that one will be REALLY bad! (I don't recommend this one)

And why did you need to lower yourself to his level?

That would be physically impossible, since his center of gravity is about 2 feet lower than mine ;)

I had a coach a short time ago screaming from the far end of the court that my calls were quote"weak" since that wasn't a question and it wasn't his first comment I "T'ed him up this was a jv game.My next assignment was his school but I was assigned to the frosh-soph and the varsity so i didn't do his game.During warm-ups for the freshman game he walked up to me put his arm on my shoulder and apoligized.He said his team was shooting about 20% and he was frustrated.By the way I watched the game and the coach gave no problems during the game.

Re: four Dave-isms
 

"That was nothing, you should have seen me last night."

Re: Last October
 

Why is it almost always 20 years? Sometimes it's "I've
ever seen" but when they have to pick a number it's
usually 20. You would think something like
"the most poorly officiated game in the last 3 yrs and 4
months" would sound more thoughtful.

Re: Re: Last October
 

Sparky,
Must be poetic license.
Two of us felt his comment was laughable.
One partner (the most experienced) felt "just horrible" the coach felt that way.
I still laughed. The Coach was wrong.
mick

Coach asks me
"YOUR GOING TO TELL ME THAT'S NOT A FOUL!!"
i respond very quietly...no.

He comes back again..
"THEN YOUR GOING TO TELL ME THAT IT WAS A FOULD AND YOU JUST DECIDED NOT TO CALL IT, RIGHT!!!
i again repond quietly..no

coach with a puzzled look on his face...

after the game coach, thanks my partner and i. i ask.
"Any more questions?, he responds, "no" with a big smile on his face.

keep smiling
SH