"Captain, are you ready?"

[zebraman]

I never ask the coaches if they have any questions. One time my partner asked them if they had any questions. One coach said, "how ya' gonna call handchecking tonight?" The other coach asked, "are you gonna call their illegal screens?" IMHO, don't ask them if they have any questions.

Z

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally posted by Jurassic Referee

The reason for is that long ago in a galaxy far, far away, the coach had absolutely no contact with the players on the court except during halftime. Players on the court were the only ones allowed to request a timeout, and when a timeout was granted the players had to stay on the court and could not communicate directly with the coach; these restrictions also applied to the intermission between the 1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters, between overtime periods.

[/B]

Say what? I can't ever remember the players not being able to talk to the coaches during timeouts. And not being able to talk between quarters either? I've refereed 46 years and I've never heard of that one--at any level. [/B][/QUOTE]


JR:

46 years of officiating takes you back to 1959. These restrictions predate even you. It was even before your time. I am talking as late as the 1930's and early 1940's.

MTD, Sr.

[RookieDude]

Originally posted by zebraman
I never ask the coaches if they have any questions. One time my partner asked them if they had any questions. One coach said, "how ya' gonna call handchecking tonight?" The other coach asked, "are you gonna call their illegal screens?" IMHO, don't ask them if they have any questions.

Z

C'mon Z,
I would wager you are a good enough official that those little questions would have a more than adequate response from you.

i.e.
"Coach, we're gonna call um' as we see um'." or
"I guess you're gonna find out in a few minutes."

You don't have to get into a long debate over your philosophy of hand checks or screens or anything else for that matter. They will soon find out how the game is called...and adjust accordingly, if need be.

Usually the coach asks nothing...but, I did have one the other night ask if we were going to call the "flop". He stated that his player was called for one when his team was visiting another town using another officials' association.

We stated that the "flop" was a T this year and if a player does indeed "flop"...then that is the rule.
He asked a rule question, and we answered it.
We didn't say we would call it or not...just that it was a rule, and we would use our judgement to determine if it was a "flop" or not.

[WinterWillie]

Originally posted by DownTownTonyBrown

I use DTTB's signature line and everyone nods their heads in agreement. You can't get a more positive response than that.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

Say what? I can't ever remember the players not being able to talk to the coaches during timeouts. And not being able to talk between quarters either? I've refereed 46 years and I've never heard of that one--at any level. [/B]

JR:

46 years of officiating takes you back to 1959. These restrictions predate even you. It was even before your time. I am talking as late as the 1930's and early 1940's.

[/B][/QUOTE]Sorry. I forgot that you were that old.

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally posted by RookieDude
Then I end the short conference with, "OK, if you see anything out there...don't be afraid to let us know."
(I love to see their face when I say this. You know, most coaches are going to "let you know" if they see "something" anyway...I just give them permission, and he that give-uth can take away-uth.

I started doing this a couple of months ago. I love that look. In all seriousness I think it goes a long way to diffusing the adversarial relationship that often exists between coaches and officials. But one thing I've noticed is that if a coach responds by saying, "Oh, I never say anything to the officials," he's lying through his pearly whites.

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

BITS:

You asked why does the notion of captains still exist?

As one peruses the rules, one sees that the captain is referenced many times but the coach is only referred to with regard to the conduct of bench of personnel. The reason for is that long ago in a galaxy far, far away, the coach had absolutely no contact with the players on the court except during halftime. Players on the court were the only ones allowed to request a timeout, and when a timeout was granted the players had to stay on the court and could not communicate directly with the coach; these restrictions also applied to the intermission between the 1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters, between overtime periods.

Just think how much easier and quicker the game would be if the game still had these restrictions.

MTD, Sr.

I wondered if it wasn't something like that. I knew coaches had much more stringent restrictions in the old days. I'm not sure that the blissful quiet on the sidelines would be worth having to endure middle school games where the coach wasn't allowed to coach his players.

[Hotlink501]

I get the captains out to the center circle, have them shake hands with their opponents if they haven't already done so by the time I start speaking, I introduce myself and my co-official(s), ask them if they have any question over any rule interpretation. I strongly advise them that sportmanship will be expected from everyone, and if there is a problem, they should come to us in a respectful manner and address the problem. Good luck. Its over and they can go about their pregame as usual. I dont go into any long winded speech, usually takes about 1 minute. If there is 10(more or less) players on one end of the floor wearing the same uniform, I see no need in asking if everyone is properly equipped, why is this necessary, are we going to have a cup or a bra check later? I only talk to the coaches in pregame to introduce myself and get them to sign the book, or just introduce myself if I am the umpire. There is nothing we need to discuss prior to the contest that I can think of.

[bob jenkins]

Originally posted by refnrev
Stay set and stay put.

I'm confused -- there's no requirement to "stay set and stay put".

[Rich]

Originally posted by RookieDude
Captains Meeting: (12 minutes)
"Ok guys get in close,(The band is loud), This is Mr. (name) and this is Mr.(name) and I am Mr. (name). We're going to show great sportsmanship tonight...not like all that crap you see in the NBA. If an opponent falls down...you can help him up...it's not against the rules.(smile)
(pointing at the stands) All these people paid good money tonight to see you guys play...not us officials having to get all funky. Understand? (Blank stares and some head nodding) Ok, (looking at partners) do you guys have anything to add? (Usually, "No" or "Just have fun")
"Alright, shake hands (players w/ players again) and have fun!"

Coaches Meeting: (2 minutes...Visiting Coach first)

"Hi Coach, (my name), and this is (U1's name) & (U2's name)
(sometimes I'll even shake the assistant coach's hand)
...so coach, do you have any questions, comments, jokes?" (usually lightens the coach up...may have a variety of answers...such as "Not any I can tell here." etc. So far have not heard, "Yeah, 3 of um' are standing in front of me!" )
Then I end the short conference with, "OK, if you see anything out there...don't be afraid to let us know."
(I love to see their face when I say this. You know, most coaches are going to "let you know" if they see "something" anyway...I just give them permission, and he that give-uth can take away-uth.

Some of you may go absolutely nuts about this. Fine, don't use it...use what works for you and use what fits your own individual personality.

I am extremely informal. I always introduce us to the kids by first name.

Hi, this is Bob. I'm Rich. Who's in charge tonight? OK, 22 red and 10 white. We're going to try to talk to you early on -- listen to us, we don't want any unnecessary fouls. Get loose balls to the nearest official - we're not chasing any basketballs. Any questions? Anything you want to add Bob? (Silence from Bob). Be good sports and have fun.

That's it. If it takes more than a minute I expect to be fined one post game beverage by my partner. Then the R goes to the table and the U1 (or U1/U2) goes back to opposite table.

In Wisconsin, we meet the coaches at 1:30. The R goes first and we go to the V bench first. We already know the coaches' names and we use them: Jim, nice to see you, I'm Rich. Hi, Jim great to see you, I'm Bill. R: Jim, are all your players legally and properly attired? Yes. Do you promise to exhibit and promote good sportsmanship? Yes. Good luck. Then we introduce ourselves to the assistant coaches and we move to the H bench where we do the same thing. By then, it's almost 0:00 on the clock. Anthem, introductions, off we go.

I'm sure there's variation among crews, but I give both teams the same amount of time and use the exact same words when possible.

--Rich

[zebraman]

Originally posted by RookieDude

C'mon Z,
I would wager you are a good enough official that those little questions would have a more than adequate response from you.

I don't remember exactly what I said that night, something along the lines of, "we're going to call them by the rules." But I just learned that night that it's easier not to ask them if they have questions because they'll come up with some doozies that don't accomplish anything.

Z

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally posted by bob jenkins

I'm confused -- there's no requirement to "stay set and stay put".

Once the refereee is "ready," non-jumpers may not move onto or around the circle. The jumpers must remain in their half of the circle. But that's a bit of a mouthful

[johnSandlin]

I do ask for speaking captains during the captains meeting, and do request that it be a starter if possible. However, when it comes to jump at the beginning of the game, I do something to the fact of "both centers ready to go...give me a chance to get it (the ball) up there, because I am a little shorter then the two of you" (referring to the centers), and then I put the ball in the air.

[Camron Rust]

Originally posted by Back In The Saddle

Once the refereee is "ready," non-jumpers may not move onto or around the circle. The jumpers must remain in their half of the circle. But that's a bit of a mouthful

But they may all move away from the circle at anytime. So, "Stay set and stay put" is telling them not to do something that is legal.

All say is "Ready?" to everyone...more of an alert that we're going to begin rather than a question.

[ChuckElias]

With captains: "Guys/gals, shake hands. I'm Mr. Elias, this is Mrs. Downs. Blue, who's your floor captain? White, floor captain? Ok, guys, have a good game. Good luck."

With coaches (one at a time): "Hi coach, nice to meet you/see you again. Good luck tonight."

As I've said dozens of times on this forum, the captains aren't listening to your spiel and they're certainly not going to tell everybody in the huddle what you just talked about for the last 3 minutes. So just say hi and good luck.