Good Coach Stories

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Junker

Interesting to hear that Jake was good on the bench. I've heard from other officials that he's a pain. I'm pretty sure one friend and very good official sat him down. Maybe he was losing. As far as my good coaches, in a summer camp I worked one of our better varsity teams in the area. Their point guard popped off a couple of times, nothing major. The second time he did, after I reported the foul I said, "coach, your point guard is questioning us repeatedly, you might want to have a word with him." The coach says, "He is? You better give me a 30 second time out." Coach then spent the next 30 seconds chewing the kids' butt. I appreciated him backing us.

Maybe I had him after he got sat down. I had heard he'd needed an adjustment in a different game.

I'm guessing your coach was Zanders? Did they win state this year?

[daveg144]

At halftime of a 9th grade conference tournament championship game (A is winning by 12 points against B), the room where my partner and I are in is within B's locker room. As we are sitting there, discussing the first half and enjoying a cold bottle of water, we can hear B's coach talking to his team. He talks about a few "mechanical" things (get the ball inside, don't take quick 3 pointers, call out screens on defense, etc.). Then, he launches into a motivational speech. It was really good. He tells his players that although they are trailing by 12, the pressure is really on the other team. Everyone expects them to win now that they have the big lead at halftime. He goes on about playing one possession at a time, having fun, etc, etc.

He builds and builds the speech until the end and he has all 12 kids shouting and banging on the lockers! They can't wait to go out that door and get some major butt! During the warmups before the half, these kids are pumped and ready to go.

However, they play lousy in the second half and lose by about 20. Great speech, though!

[Junker]

Adam,
Yes and yes. Hoover was pretty impressive down the stretch and at tournament time. They knocked off an excellent Urbandale team if I remember correctly. Hopefully I'll see them next season, about half my schedule is in the Metro.

[johnnyrao]

I had a varsity coach this season ask a question about a call we made early in the game. It was not a complaint and she was very polite about it. I explained the call and rule to her (I can't remember the exact call but I do remember our discussion). A few minutes later I was the C right in front of her bench and she says "Tell your partners I'm sorry for giving you a hard time and questioning your call earlier". For those of you who are thinking of asking, yes, she was being very sincere. She was a very nice person and a good coach too. Her players listened, huslted like crazy, played disciplined basketball and won by a lot that night. I have never had another coach do say something like that to me.

[Forksref]

I've had several games this year where a team was getting totally blown out, out-manned and out-played. Their coaches were wonderful with the kids, being very positive with them. The kids actually enjoyed the game. When I coached, I always told the kids that the number one goal was to have fun.

Two weeks ago I was doing a large amateur youth tournament in town. (I normally don't do these but the assigner was desperate!) A team from our state (6th grade level) was playing a team from Winnipeg. I first thought the Winnipeg team was comprised entirely of Native Americans but I found out later that they were Phillipino. I chatted with some of their parents before the game. The game was close and the Winnipeg team lost the game. During the game, parents of the other team were really into it, not abusive to us officials, but really into it as if it was the NBA Final. After the game I chatted with the Winnipeg parents and they were saying things like, "Good game! That was fun! It was fun to watch our kids play and have fun out there. Thanks for a good job." I doubt the parents of the other team would have been as gracious had they lost. I thought about the Phillipino team and parents, and concluded, "That's the way it should be! Out here for their kids and the enjoyment of sport, not worried about wins and losses. I don't know if it was a cultural difference or what, but it was really refreshing to see the entire group enjoy the day with their kids, regardless of the score.