"It's Rule 7-1-1, Coach!"

[Hawks Coach]

Kelly
That is an excellent suggestion. You never know when you will run into a coach who is both knowledgeable and a pain in the butt. We have a coach who gets Td up from time to time who is also an official at D1 level. (Rather than accept the lower level of officiating in MS ball, he gets upset because he is used to top level standards and he is very competitive). Since he doesn't ref at the MS level, half of those refs probably have no clue they are dealing with a fellow ref when he coaches. You would look really bad to misquote a rule to him, or give a wrong citation. And the initial post on this thread had the asst coach checking the reference. What do you do when he pulls out the book at the next time out and calls you on your error that you so definitively stated to him minutes earlier.

I come from a Navy aviation maintenance background, where if you don't know it for a fact, you don't quote it as a fact. And if you should know a fact, you look it up then quote it. I have found that is a good standard to have in life in general. It keeps you out of trouble.