Has anyone ever been on the Bench!!
 

Just wondering how many of you guys have been on the flip side of officiating. Yes, Coaching. If so, boys/girls, JV/Varsity.

I've never coached, but in my experience, refs that used to be coaches tend to be pretty good refs to work with. But coaches that used to be refs are awful to ref for.

I have coached little league ball (JR Jazz) and church ball.

I remember when I was coaching one night and the refs blew the whistle and called backcourt on the other team. I told the ref that it was not back court and to give the ball back to the other team. He was dumbfounded.. He had the deer in the headlights look and I told him again to give the ball back to the other team that it was not a BC violation. I finally comvinced him, to give the ball to the other team when I started telling my guard that would have brought the ball in to pass the ball to the other team down near our endline ( didnt want them to get easy fast break)

I've coached youth soccer for 8 years (currently middle school) and have officiated basketball for 13 years. Seeing things from a coaches view (even in a different sport) does provide an interesting view points. There are one or two of my coaching peers that are embarrassing them selves on a regular basis but for the most part, they're great guys.

During and after college I coached at the Freshman Boys and Junior Varsity Boys level before having to go out and get a real job (according to my parents). When I moved from PA to NJ, the district I moved to had a rule that one needed to be a teacher to coach at the public school level. Therefore, in order to stay with the game, I became an official. I've been at it now 16 years and I love it.

I was an assistant coach at the V level for a year. That made me head coach of the Freshman team. I was terrible, plain and simple. I'd rather be a terrible ref than a terrible coach. :)

LOL

I coach our local hacky-sack team. The referees are all penguins who use air-raid sirens instead of whistles. Last week, we had a call go against us that was a backcourt sticky wicket during a penalty box timeout while not in team control after coming in from OOB with just one foot on the pitcher's rubber.

First time I've seen that.

Damn - where's those meds?

I started working our YMCA Youth League, 12 years ago as a biddy-Coach. The guy that ran Program was great. He sent quite a few of us fathers to Ref School so we could do the Games. I started reffing all the age Group Games and coaching my son's team from 4th Grade to 12th Grade. I stayed with it after my son graduated as they are always short on Coaches in the YMCA high school bracket.

We are suppose to set a good example for the kids. (Easy in Theory.) When you Coach....you want your kids to win, it's hard not to get frisky sometimes.

I remember once when one of the father's (HE HAD ATTENDED REF SCHOOL TOO) called 3 seconds on my son on an out of bounds play. I didn't say anything. I just got up and walked behind the bench and stated to bang my head on the mat on the wall.

Having played HS ball and 2 years of what became Div. 3 ball, I thought I knew the Rules intil I attended School. I'm convinced that many Coaches short change their kids by not being able to teach them "specifics" of the Rules.

Yelling, "Don't TRAVEL!" isn't teaching unless the kid knows what exactly he did wrong.

I coached boys JV basketball many moons ago...I currently am an assistant coach on a Varsity football team...gives you a much different perspective on how important good communication skills are to an official...

I coached youth basketball for a few years . I loved working with the kids. I do think it helped me to deal with coaches better. Because I understand there point of view. And I try to have good communication with them.

Ima varsity girls' coach. I understand Smitty's assertion that coaches who have officiated are terrible (for reasons most of us have experienced), but I would like to think that officiating has helped teach me to be a better coach than I used to be. Again, I like to think that I am more reasonable in what I expect out of the officials. Biggest lesson: spend my time coaching and not observing/critiquing/reacting/begging the officials.

I was an assistant coach for both a men's junior college team and a girl's junior college team before I started reffing (that was 5 years before I started officiating). It's too bad that I can't ref myself from a few years ago so I could throw my own butt out of the gym. :( I whined too much.

My theory is that reffing is my pennance for being such a nitwit.

Z

Roger that on whining too much, Z. Wasted a lot of time and didn\'t enjoy the game. Deserved the boot, but maybe the officials wanted to continue their entertainment...

Coached HS aged boys in a church league. Played in HS and College. One of the refs from a championship game I coached in was \'impressed \' with my knowledge of the game, and suckered me into becoming a ref. Haven\'t been on the bench since.