Official's time out
 

I have done some games (Grades 5-8) where things have been a bit hairy with coaches yelling or complaining during game play. Happens at a lot of games as you all know, but sometimes it is a legit complaint because the coach doesn't know the reason for a call. I have blown the whistle and stopped play and have explained to the coach what happened. Might have done this 2 or 3 times in 5 years. A majority of the time I wait until a dead ball but can you call an "offical's time out" whenever you want? I know it can be done if there is a safety issue, but OK just to expalin a call?

This is definitely something that you do not want to make a habit out of. I can't ever think of a situation where I would stop live play to explain a call. If play is already stopped and we have a very unusual situation, I might take some extra time to explain a call / ruling to the coaches. However, in general you do not want to do this.

The only time that we should really have an "official's time-out" is for an injury.

I did hear a story once of Don Rutledge stopping a game because there was so much rough play at the beginning of the game. He called a time-out, told the teams to go to their benches and to come back on the floor with a new game.

Of course, the vast majority of us are not Don Rutledge and could not get away with that! However, for him, in that situation, it worked!

The best way to stop the complaining and unsportsman behavior is to access a "T". Shuts everyone up! Give a double T- one for each coach.

That is about twice as often as you would want to do something like this. ;)

No, seriously, as Brad outlined, do not make it a habit. Explaining things i a civilized manner during dead ball periods is the best way to handle these situations. If something really harry does warrant an explanation, do so before the ball is live again. If the ball does become live, and you have to kill it to explain something, I think statistically this is a very rare event.

I agree with the technicals as well... IMHO, coaches at the 5-8th grade level should be doing not much more than coaching. At that level of play the officiating really doesn't come into it.

Not a habit, as Brad says, but 2 or 3 times in 5 years of middle school ball might be okay. You might also try, as play goes on "Coach, I"ll explain later" and then go back to focusing on the game. He may very well forget all about it, but if he doesn't, he'll probably learn something useful. It's a chance to sort of screen out the yell'er from the serious learn'er.

I have to disagree about your first statement. You should not stop play just to explain something to a coach. If you do it one time, it is going to be expected every single time there is confusion or when they do not understand what was called. Even at the middle school level this is unacceptable. If the clock is stopped, that is completely different and sometimes you can explain if you have the time. I would not explain a basic foul or a basic violation.

Peace

Ms. Downs, since it's after Mr. Grammar Guy's normal bedtime, I'm afraid it falls to me to show you the yellow card for a double spurious misuse of an apostrophe. As soon as I've jotted your name down in my little book, we'll restart this thread with an indirect free kick. :D

Actually, Back In The Saddle, the "double spurious misuse of an apostrophe" was intended to make you smile.
...And I see it did.
mick

Actually, mick and BITS, to quote from my favorite novel, Pride and Prejudice, "I deserve neither such censure, nor such praise." It was a typo.

Aaaaaaarrggh !
 

Quote:
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Ms. Downs, since it's after Mr. Grammar Guy's normal bedtime, I'm afraid it falls to me to show you the yellow card for a double spurious misuse of an apostrophe. As soon as I've jotted your name down in my little book, we'll restart this thread with an indirect free kick.

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Actually, Back In The Saddle, please accept my humblest apology for stealing that call in your primary. It was your call and I shouldn't have been looking there.
mick

No worries. I'm sure Mr. Darcy would have something provocative to say in this situation, like, "If you're both watching rainmaker, who is watching the other posters?" :)

At this age, the officials are often as inexperienced as the coaches, and are often working by themselves. The scorers table may be at one of the baselines, and not in the usual location. If the official comes to where the table should be and signals the call with correct mechanics, there should be no need to clarify. However, inexperienced officials may not take an unusual table configuration into account when signalling and the coaches may need the call explained. Sometimes, even the table needs a call explained. I can remember a couple of games where a jump ball call was not clear and the table didn't change the arrow on the inbounds pass.