Good Coach Stories

[jkjenning]

Hoop-It-Up: two teams, each of which won their respective championship game, and two different types of coaches. Both coaches were also officials; on one team, the players were physical and the coach complained about calls/no calls [I eventually wised up enough to T him and that helped]. In contrast, the other team hustled while playing well within the rules, the coach rarely commented about calls and never voiced displeasure towards me; this guy was always calm to his players. It was really impressive to watch him manage his team; he would even lighten my load by making sure he filled out the rosters for his games. I came away impressed with his calm, intelligent control of his team and how his respect for the game extended to the official (Hoop-It-Up is 1-man mechanics!); hopefully I'll run across him as a officiating partner sometime!

I have great respect for the many coaches who have worked with my own children and am very happy to say that the vast majority of these coaches rarely focused their ire on the officials. I think that as an official it is always good to keep in mind that the coaches are the ones who spend countless hours with the players, preparing for the game; we are sort of like the "grandparents" who show up to adminster the game and then get to say 'goodbye'.