This happened last night. Clarification on rule.

[TravelinMan]

Greg Alan - regarding the behavior of the coach. I think it was wrong not to say or do anything to the coach. Makes you as officials look incompetent and weak. Try doing this next time. Give him the Stop sign - "coach that's enough" (and say it with conviction). This way you give him the opportunity to stop yelling and correct his behavior. If he ignores you, then T him up. If he listens now but gets out of hand later in the game, T him up. Better game management. And this is not just my opinion. You'll hear this from the elite officials - the ones that give clinics at the camps.

[REFVA]

In reference to the coach yelling , I had two situation last night where the fouls seem to have been going the wrong way, not his of course, my partner had a blocking foul and mistakenly signalled Charge, The call was correct the mechanics was wrong, anyway the coach turned around becuase his player seem to have been playing out of control and getting so many fouls, " are you guys wanting to get out of here early". Bingo no hesitation T.

Second instance was same team, a player a no foul call clean block, turns to me" you got to be kidding, are you blind" Bingo, Player gets a T.

So again both instances the coach and player questioning our intergrity. Both diserving of the T.

So when a coach yells out call it both ways, he is implying that you have no integrity. That is a no no.. T him/her up..

[SMEngmann]

Originally Posted by TravelinMan

Greg Alan - regarding the behavior of the coach. I think it was wrong not to say or do anything to the coach. Makes you as officials look incompetent and weak. Try doing this next time. Give him the Stop sign - "coach that's enough" (and say it with conviction). This way you give him the opportunity to stop yelling and correct his behavior. If he ignores you, then T him up. If he listens now but gets out of hand later in the game, T him up. Better game management. And this is not just my opinion. You'll hear this from the elite officials - the ones that give clinics at the camps.

I disagree that a stop sign is the right approach here, it gives the coach too much leeway to continue his behavior and test you. What the coach is doing here is directly challenging your integrity and competence as an official, and doing so loudly to the point where he's threatening to undermine your control of the game. You need to firmly establish who's in charge of the game right now and do it in a way that everyone in the gym will understand too.

I rarely do middle school games anymore, but it just so happens that last weekend I did a 6th grade girls game at a big AAU tournament, and the coach for one of the teams thought he was a fan at an NBA game, first getting loud because I "missed" a high dribble that he thought was a carry, which I addressed as I went by and then yelling at my partner because of a good no call on the other end. I spun and demonstratively whacked the guy 22 seconds in, and when he started to question me I told him to sit down if he didn't want another. The guy was a good boy the rest of the game, and was very respectful.

Different approaches work with different people. I would never have reacted that way in a higher level game, particularly being demonstrative with the T, but at the level described, often coaches are dealing with newer officials and they try to intimidate them and control the game from the sidelines. You need to draw a line in the sand early that tells everyone in the gym that you're in charge if you're challenged and maintain that level of control throughout. A warning doesn't do that in my opinion, a strong T does.

[TravelinMan]

[QUOTE=SMEngmann]I disagree that a stop sign is the right approach here, it gives the coach too much leeway to continue his behavior and test you. What the coach is doing here is directly challenging your integrity and competence as an official, and doing so loudly to the point where he's threatening to undermine your control of the game. You need to firmly establish who's in charge of the game right now and do it in a way that everyone in the gym will understand too.

If you read my post, I say that the stop sign is a FINAL WARNING. I do NOT warn more than once. I am NOTgiving the coach ANY leeway to continue his behavior. One more word now or at any further point in the game is a T or toss. I don't know what your STOP sign looks like, but I can assure you mine is something you will remember for some time.

[Back In The Saddle]

In a 7th/8th grade game, I'd most likely sternly warn the coach the first time. This level of ball is where coaches come to learn, which rightly implies that they don't yet know how to behave properly. You stifle that learning when you ignore this behavior. You aid that learning when you address it. Unless his behavior is outrageous, I'd suggest you give him a chance, one chance, to mend his ways. Give him a rather stern, completely obvious stop sign. If he doesn't take the hint, whack him fast. And the second T shouldn't be too difficult to earn either.

Now in a HS game, the coach should already know better. If he behaves in this manner, he triggers an auto-whack response.