coaches "working" officials

[tarheelcoach]

Maybe it's the area I work, but I'll tell you that there are officials that do my school's games that can be 'worked'. The coaches know who they are, and the games are a constant battle between who can influence the official to get what he wants. If I chose not to try to 'work' these officals, the calls would be heavily slanted in the other guys direction - I've seen it happen - in my games and other team's games.
That said - the majority of officials above rec ball can NOT be influenced by 'working' them, so I don't waste my time. Just like coaches have a gameplan for beating a particular opponent based on what was successful in the past, we typically have a gameplan for dealing with officials.
Coaches will do what it takes to win ballgames - that's what we get paid for. As long as that is done respectfully I don't see anything wrong with it.