Good Coach Stories

[Texas Aggie]

Girls varsity game, 5A school (largest class) vs. 3A school. The 3A school was winning comfortably, and the 5A school was getting into serious foul trouble and only had 6 or 7 players. They start fouling out, and pretty soon are down to 3 and we go into a time out. Coming out of the time out, the 3A school's coach only sends out 3 players to match the other team. I go to the coach and remind her they have to play with 5 if they have them, but thank her for the gesture.

[JRutledge]

In 2005 I worked a summer league game at a HS very close to my house. I was working with another very good official and both of us were relatively young than most officials. In this particular game one of the teams was a religious school and the other was a newly formed public school. The public school had its first year of varsity sports during the 2005-2006 school year. This game was between two varsity teams and the religious school was being coached by their varsity coach.

During the game my partner and I call about 4 or 5 fouls in a row on the religious school on the same end of the court during the same possession. Well I happen to call the last foul, all were box out type of fouls where the defender basically push out of the way the opponent and move them several feet away from the ball. Right after I call the foul the coach goes nuts on me when a timeout is called. He comes out and starts going off. He curses, he raises his voice, he is about 5 feet away just going nuts about what I called (he was really not upset with me). I start back at him and I say to him, “You are cursing at me? You have the nerve to curse at me and behave that way towards me. This is a Christian school, you need to be more of a professional, this is summer league for God sake.”

After the exchange there was silence. During the rest of the game there were no other incidents, not Ts were given and everything went smooth. After the game this coach comes to me and says, “You were right, I do need to act like a professional.”

The ironic thing is I find in the fall that I have this coach during the regular season. On top of this coach is playing one of the best programs at home with a famous coach. When we get to the game the visiting team is ranked #1 or #2 (I cannot remember) in the state. So I am thinking there is going to be a problem. I was not sure if the coach knew my name or anything about me before this game and during the summer incident. Well the regular season game goes off without a hitch. This coach who I had the run in with only argued about one call I made all night. He does get very intense and has a scowl on his face that might scare many other people under the right circumstances. I did tell my partners before the game so they would be aware if something did happen.

Fast forward to March during the State Tournament. I happen to sit with the assignor that assigns this coach’s conferences and some fellow officials at a hotel bar that everyone comes to after or in-between games from the State Tournament. Well this coach comes to the bar and sits and talks to all of us that are sitting at the table. I am sitting with the assignor of this conference in basketball and happen to be sitting with the football assignor for the same conference, who is also a former state final official. I believe there was one other person that was there but I just cannot remember because there were people all over the place. Well the all of us are talking about the season and school issues and anything about the tournament and even certain officials. This all takes place for an hour or two. The coach makes a comment about not getting upset or something along those lines and I make a joke about that and we both laugh. The entire conversation you could tell there was an “I know you” kind of look that each of us had.

When everyone gets up from the table and starts to make their way to the arena, I ran into the coach in the hall way with a friend of his that was not at the bar table. This coaches friend makes a joke about how his friend gets a little intense and asked me did I ever T him up during a game. Well then the coach and I let down the façade and talked openly about the summer incident. He admitted to being upset about they way his team played. He said to me, “You were right, it is summer league.” And we have one big huge laugh about the incident and joked about what happen on both of our parts. I retold the story to his friend and we had about a 10 minute conversation and I told him I held no animosity about the situation and he was just doing his job and things like this happen. I told him it would have been pointless to T him up and he was there to get his kids ready for the season. I also said I was there to get ready for the season and that I understood the way he acted because he was more upset about how veteran team was playing against a bunch of freshman and sophomores on the other program.

This was one of the funniest things I have ever come in contact with during my career. Usually these situations get ironed out very quickly or they fester until a much later situation where feelings are hurt and things much harsher are said.

Peace

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Give me a minute

Peace

And an hour and a half later...

I think there are more coaches like this than we all know about; it's just that we don't get a chance to see them outside the context of the game. I know of one coach that just seems to go nuts on the sideline, (and usually leads the league in T's), but off the court he's a decent guy. I wonder how many of these intense individuals we would actually consider "nice guys" away from the game itself. And, how do we turn them back into those "nice guys" while they're on the court? I wonder if Victor Conte is involved somehow?...

[The New Guy]

I wasn't working this game, but I was watching it on television...

State championship game, one team was undefeated and the other team had only three losses. The team with three losses ended up winning by about 15 points. The local cable network had microphones on both coaches. After a timeout with less than a minute to play, the game was no longer in doubt, the network plays the audio of what the losing coach said in the huddle. His players were visibly upset and emotional with the finality of their undefeated season ending in heartbreak.

He was still coaching them, giving them support and then right before they broke the huddle, he pulled them together and said "Hey guys, I know you're upset, but think about it this way... every team in the state except one would switch places with you if they could. Go play these last 38 seconds like it was the first 38 seconds of the season."

I thought it was a great way of putting things in perspective for a bunch of kids that may have needed it at that moment.

[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.