End of game management - Got to be a better way

[SMEngmann]

Most of these types of problems that I see occur at the sub-varsity level, with less experienced coaches and less mature players. Particularly in blowouts, a losing coach can really create problems by whining about calls. In my experience as a player, coach and now an official, it's easy to see that coaches have a great deal of influence on players, particularly at that level, and the constant whining leads the players to think they're getting cheated and increases the frustration level. It leads them to hunt for calls and focus on us and our game, rather than theirs.

Whenever I have a coach like this, particularly in JV games, I will keep an eye on him and try to redirect his efforts to the players. I'll acknowledge his frustration and comments, but I won't stand for being a punching bag for him and his players to take out their anger, as this tends to lead to things like the deadball push, hard foul, etc. I will use the T to rein in the coach, and this past weekend, I had to toss a coach to keep the game under control. My level of tolerance for coaches berating me on phantom calls is very low and I think more officials need to establish that low level of tolerance early to keep games under control, particularly at the JV level where less experienced officials often have to, and can't deal properly with these types of jerks.