Coach Blows Up...

[DanIvey]

COACH BLOWS UP...TAKES PLAYERS TO THE LOCKER ROOM DURING GAME!
Before I start I would like to say Hi to all the excellent officials in this forum. I have been unable to access this forum for a year or so and am very pleased to be back. I have been officiating for over 12 years and I am on the Board of our Local Association. With that said, the following story will show you that when you are dealing with "personalities" i.e. coaches, scorers, administrators, fans, and fellow officials...anything can happen. Maybe thats why we love this advocation so much!
Last week my partner, who is also a veteran official, and I were officiating a Boys H.S. Varsity Game. It was a big game with the local media and radio station there broadcasting it. The visiting team had just won a close game in overtime the night before in thier gym. (different officials from a different association.) The visiting team was therefore ready to come down and beat the home team,which they had lost earlier to in the beginning of the year at their "house". The home team was fighting for a playoff spot and knew it would be hard as the visiting team was well up in the Standings. Ok...so maybe that's more information than you need to know...but just consider it some background.
1st quarter...I call a personal foul on the visiting team player B1. B1 tells me that's a B---S---- call! Easy, I have a Technical foul on B1. Team B Coach comes a couple steps out on the court to meet me as I am going to report the foul and subsequent "T". Coach B yells at me "What did he say?" "What did he say?" I broke my own rule of never having to repeat profanity...just tell the coach "he used profanity coach thus the Technical Foul" or he "Commited an Unsportsmanlike Act coach"...but no, I have to show the 6'5" 300 lb. ex-big time college player turned coach that I am not intimidated by him (watch your egos new officials)...soooo, I say "He said B---Sh-- coach and if he says it again he'll be gone!" I calmly walk to the scorers' table and report the fouls as the Team B coach says "you don't have to get an attitude with me!" [Sidenote: Ok there's some history with this coach...he has been in trouble with our association before for kicking the offical's locker room door, using profanity and threatining remarks to our officials.] [Furthermore, he is not a teacher from the school but lives in the community]
Later in the 1st quarter...my partner "T"s up another Team B player for slamming the ball down hard and watching it go about 20 feet in the air for a called foul. (I wonder where these players are getting their attitudes from?) The Team B coach again goes off on my partner for not giving them any "slack". BTW the Home team is ahead in the foul count and the score by 1 pt. Close game.
2nd quarter...Home Team A makes a run toward the end of the first half and goes in at half time up by about 11 pts. Team B coach says something to us as he is exiting like "You guys are putting the game in your hands not the players"...I ignore him.
3rd quarter...Home Team A shoots the lights out, plays aggresive defense and starts to create a wider margin in the score.
4th quarter...6:50 seconds left of the quarter. Home Team A leading 81 - 49. Team B Coach is very frustrated. (The game tape was later viewed by his school administration and they found only "two travel calls" that were questionable to them in the whole game) Team B Coach evidently decides is time to spark the team. Coach B starts to yell at me "Are you happy now" "Are you happy now" Are you happy now!" I can't ignore him now as he's making a scene. I calmly give him a "T" as he is ranting and raving about being "homered"! I walk by him...and here goes the ego thing again...and say "Coach, we can't be 32 points bad" meaning how could we help a team 32 points worth? Well...he is so mad he gathers his team up and heads for the locker room. (the week before he wouldn't replace a disqualified player after fouling out...he made his team play with 4 and told the official he was not going to replace him) 1:30 left in game, official let him do it. Anyway, back to this game. I had the Team A player shoot 2 FTs for the "T". My partner wanted to forfeit game and go to the locker room. I said lets just take a deep breath and wait. The Principal of the Team B school asked me, very nicely, if he could go in the locker room and get the players to come back out. I said sure, we would wait. Team A was in shock by their bench as was the rest of the people in the stands. The police handled the crowd very good. No one came on the court. I talked my partner into waiting to see what would happen. (As it turns out, if the team had not come back on floor, they would have possibly had to forfeit the rest of their season according the State Association.) The principal talked the coach and players into coming out of the locker room...I now told the Assistant Coach he would be the Coach as the Team B Coach has just received his second technical foul for leaving the court without authorization. Call it anything you want, it was an unsportsmanlike act to pull your players off the court during a game. Team A shot two more FTs and we ended the game without anymore interuptions. Team A won.
Final Score 99-78. Team A Fouls-28 Team B Fouls-23
More fouls than I think I have ever had in a game.
Coach B ripped me in the local paper, saying it was a "homer type deal" and that I had whispered to him "Coach your down by 30, you'll be down by 50 soon." The reporter caught me as I was being escorted to my car by the local police. He asked me if he could talk to me. I ask him who he was with and he told me. I stated that I wasn't suppose to talk to the media about games. He told me what the coach had said and I simply stated that "I absolutely did not say that." He told me he didn't usually put officials names in the paper, but that he was on this occasion. He did, and he quoted me. It was actually a fair and accurate account of the game. But, you had a coach and a referee with two accounts of what was said...someone was lying.
There can be a whole lot of lessons learned here...but remember, a referee's lack of judgement should not justify a coach's lack of character.
Comments?