I like this plan of attack. Smooth.

I am an assistant varisty girls coach. I check the forum on a daily basis to keep up on the rules. Head coach does not have an intimate knowledge of the rules. The other night there is a designated throw in, girl shuffles her feet. Official blows whistle and gives the traveling signal.(Don't cringe!) It appeared to me she had one foot at all times over the designated spot. I tried to tell our head coach there is no traveling on a designated throw in and the call should be questioned. He looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about. If the head coach gets the officials attention can I be a part of the conversation or do we always pay the price for his lack of knowledge?

[Edited by RoyalsCoach on Dec 21st, 2004 at 05:12 PM]

This is why just like officials have to write an exam each year, I think coaches should have to write an exam every year.

Royalscoach, lemme ask you a question. Has challenging a call ever resulted in a reversal? What good is going to come of questioning the call?

Coach, you pay the price for the official's lack of knowledge, NOT your head coach's lack of knowledge! Get it? What if your HC knows the rule? Do you think questioning the official's call is going to change the call?? No, it's not. While looking at the game tape with the head coach, you might say something like, "Jeesh, I'm not sure why that official called traveling there. There is no travel call on an inbounds throw-in as all our player needs to do is keep part of her body over a 3-foot spot. HC, did you know that?"

If you're brave enough...and if the official seems receptive to the nice conversation your bench has been having with him the whole game, you might ask him/her about the call when he/she comes over to get you out of a TO huddle. That is one of the FEW times I might listen to an assistant. But it better be civil and done in a professional manner!!

I don't really expect to get a call changed. Mainly we like to know the call so we can use it as a learning experince for our players. Most officials, especially the ones we know, will at least tell the assistants what call was made. In this situation we may not get the call changed but we know the other officals probably know the correct call. If they talk at half time we may get the correct call in the second half.

This is good, and as others have said, it's worth it to talk to the ref politely and quietly when there is a chance to have a quick clean exchange. I think you could also work on your head coach to know the rules better, though. I mean, what happens if you get hit by a truck next week (God forbid!)? he needs to know how to work on things in practice, and not depend on you.

I also suggest you work with your players on letting it go when a ref makes a bad call. The coaches that win the most games say, "No way it's the refs' fault you lost this game. One bad call is not the thing that changed this game. You didn't hit your free throws, you passed the ball out of bounds, you fumbled the ball. You lost the game yourselves." Kids need to learn to forgive themselves, and it starts with learning to forgive others.

I totally agree. I have gained a lot of respect for officials by coming to this forum. We never let our players complain to the officials or they will be sitting. When you miss numerous layups and free throws, don't box out, throw the ball away and travel a few times it is hard to blame the officials for a loss.

We need more coaches like you, good job, and keep it up.

I tend to not listen to assistant coaches at all. But if a coach comes to me very respectfully and in the right tone of voice asking a question, I will accommodate. If they start to accuse me of something or my partners ("You missed that call") then all bets are off. RoyalCoach, I have no problem with the way you approach an official. Sometimes the assistant is the one with the questions more than the Head Coach. As long as both you and the HC are not talking to me at the same time, I really would not have a problem answering your questions. The problem is that most assistants do not behave that way and I will admit that I have a very short leach for anything assistants might say.

Just this past Saturday I had a conversation with an assistant coach that was asking me about a play. He did not raise his voice. He did not accuse me of anything. He just wanted to know why I made a call on his kid during a screen. He was even asking things like, "Well can't he do this" or "Can't he do that." He was so respectful I did not get upset or have a problem with the discussion. Actually the last thing I said to the coach, "well if he does that again, I am going to call the very same thing." They got the message and we moved on. No contention from the bench at any other point in the game.

Peace

I nominate ref18 as chairwoman of the Good Coach Appreciation Committee. Any seconds? :D

MTD- reading your post about no whistle and signal on a Tech foul, I must disagree with that and agree with Rich's comments about the whistle. After all this a game officiated with signals which communicate to everybody what is going on.

I don't see how a technical wasn't called on the assistant coach. If it was the HC it seems like it's a borderline T. The assistant, who is not allowed to even have a coach's box is out of the box and at the table arguing with a call. That's as automatic as it gets in my book. What if the assistant on the other team did the same thing? I agree with trying to reduce the number of technical fouls, but blatently ignoring a rule about bench decorum is not the way to handle the situation in my opinion. The more officials who let this type of thing go, the harder it becomes to create sportsmanship.

I agree completely.

A couple years back I was working a 8B game, CYO post season tourney. My partner was a high school age ref - exceptionally good for his age & experience level. I made an out of bounds call near the baseline, team that caused the the OOB called time out. As my partner reported the TO I noticed a woman walk out onto the floor towards him, so I headed that way & heard her start to complain to him about my OOB call. I walked up & said nicely "excuse me Mam, but who are you and why are you on the playing floor?" Her rather pompous response was "I'm the assistant coach!", to which I calmly replied "thankyou, technical foul". She started to say something else, so I gave her the "stop sign" and told her one more word & she'd be watching the rest of the game from the parking lot, and to please return to her team bench. I then reported the T and informed her HC he would have to sit the rest of the game.