I probably had my worst game management night tonight. Luckily, it was 7th grade YMCA. I took WAY too much $#!& from the winning coach, and should have rang him up sooner than I did. And I probably should have rang him up more often than I did.
On top of that, he won by about 40 and never pulled off his press.
Lesson learned. I've got more YMCA stuff Saturday, and tonight will not be repeated.

Had a game management issue as well. Student section was saying a few things that they shouldn't had been and one of my partners told them to settle down a little. So of course, one of the smartasses stands up and tries to "look cool" I guess by talking back to my partner. Anyways, in between quarters, my partner goes over to the PRINCIPAL (our game management) and he does nothing but just sit there. Unreal.

NEVER mess with anyone in the crowd. You will never, ever, win that battle. But, if the game admin (the Principal??) didn't take care of issues he should have, you should contact your HS association. In Texas they would NOT tolerate that.

I'm the kind of guy that coach/crowd rhetoric didn't ever bother me in the least. I'd let coaches have their say, and if they crossed the line, word wise, were letting their kids get out of control, or did something demonstrable (charge the floor, throw a jacket/other, etc.), then I'd light them up. You don't gain much by trying to reason with coaches. Just enforce the rules given your good sense and the advantage/disadvantage philosophy.

Remember one thing as far as the crowd is concerned: YOU are getting paid, while THEY had to pay to get in. Its obvious who's opinion is valued and who's isn't.

Never? I don't think so. Please tell me you are kidding. You're telling me if a fan/student stood up and called you a dumb F'in a**hole. I hope you would not ignore this or any other comment like this.

If game management doesn't handle the situation by either speaking with the offender or remove him from the gym, the official's response should be "this game is over until that fan is removed from the premises."

Yup, if you go to the principal and he refuses to do anything about <b>his</b> crowd problem, it's <i>sayonara</i>.

Remember Pittsburgh!!

Next step is security
 

Thank goodness all of our teams are required to have security. If there is a problem in the stands, and we had one the other night, we simply notify our security to have them escourted out of the gym.

Had this the other night with a fan who was harassing the opposing teams bench. Adios amigo.

But the principal if notified and does nothing I could get rid of him also. And then write him up.

Thanks
David

Right on firedoc! Simple choice...either remove the fan (if it's truly that bad) or this game is over. IF it isn't that bad, similar option for the Administrator - "you can handle this situation as you see fit, but any further comments, etc, from that section, fan, whatever, that negatively impacts the game and we'll want the offender removed". Let the Administrator make the choice, but give him a choice to make. If the Administrator is the type that won't support you, you can bet you'll have trouble after the game as well - so get prepared. Make it the Administrator's responsibility and his decision as to how he handled the situation knowing what the caveat was with nobody to blame but himself.

As everyone else said, you have to let game administration take care of fans. There are times where I make sure everyone in the gym knows who I'm talking to and what I'm talking about when I have to address a fan's behavior. Other than that, I have to agree that officials should not engage fans. As far as the original post about taking crap off a 7th grade Y coach. Everyone has their tolerant nights. I find that I put up with 0 complaining in the instructional leagues. If they want to ask a question, I'm more than happy to answer a question, but if they complain, they're getting a T. I had a travelling 6th grade coach 3 times last year. All 3 times he thought he could complain and all 3 times he got to sit on the bench for most of the game. The first time I got him he threw his hands up, stood up and complained about 13 seconds into the game. That was my quickest T ever. You'd think he would have learned.

Yeah, that's about as far as I should have made it last night. 13 seconds would have been about right.
I know the biggest thing I'm learning this year is that I need to enforce the bench decorum better. Coaches seem to behave better emotionally when you let them know their physical boundaries.