Coach Follies
 

Great double-header yesterday. :rolleyes: Pre-season boys tournament. First game, at the end of the first half, the Blue coach says to me, "Let me know about 30 seconds before the half starts, so I get a chance to talk to my guys?" No sweat. It's very informal, so I'm just sitting at the table. After about 5 minutes, I blow the horn. The teams both go to their benches. My partner and the scorer are still out in the hall getting a drink or whatever. So a minute or so, maybe two minutes go by and my partner comes back in. I get the ball and go to midcourt. White comes out, it's their ball. I blow the whistle to get Blue out of their huddle. Nobody comes out. Horn blows again. Nothing. I blow the whistle. "Let's go, Blue!" Nothing. Partner also yells to the bench with no result. I whistle again and say, "Ball's coming in, Blue!" Still nothing. Finally, they break the huddle. When all 5 players get on the court, I blow the whistle and give White the ball; they get an easy basket. Coach then yells, "What was that for?" and says to my parter, "I asked him to give me 30 seconds! What was that for?"

Second game, I'm lead. During rebounding action, one player uses his right arm to push his opponent almost out of bounds and catches the rebound with his left hand. Really obvious foul. I call a pushing foul. As I'm going to report, the coach says, "That was a good box out. That's how we teach a box out!" I tried to say that he pushed, but the coach keeps saying that it was a good box out, over and over. Finally, I just said, "Ok Coach, it was a good box out." What else can you say?

I have some to share (all the same coach):

A few days ago, calling JV Girls Tournament . . . coach has been ranting and raving the entire game (good game too, and they won by six). About 3-4 minutes left in the game, and the opposing team is inbounding the ball after a made basket. Her girl flies in and pushes the girl who just received the inbounds pass. Girl loses the ball, "tweet!" I call the foul. Coach RUNS almost to the end line and screams, "That was LATE call! That was a LATE CALL!" I turned, looked at her, and replied, "AND . . . coach, it was the right call!" She yells, "but it was a LATE call!" Turns and stomps off.

Same coach, same game, now about 2 minutes left. Her point guard is dribbling in the front court, defender is within 6-feet. I begin my closely-guarded count. 5-seconds . . . "tweet!" Go the other way. Come back down again, 5-seconds . . . "tweet!" Go the other way. Coach RUNS to the division line, and screams, "What is that? What is that? What did she do?" I told her "5- second closely guarded count coach." She responds with "what is a 5-second call?" I walked away.

Same coach next day. Her player (on offense and in team control) and defender are going for an errant pass. Her player forearms another girl to get to the pass. "Tweet!" Team Control Foul. Give my direction and spot. Coach looks right at me and says, "What exactly is a team control foul!"

I guess the NFHS rulebook came in the Spanish version.

What does a coach have to do to earn a T in your games?

She was about as close as I allow. I know, I know . . . I should have "whacked her," but I figured her own ignorance was punishment enough. The next day she was much nicer when asking about Team Control Fouls though. :)

If you told the Blue coach you'd give him 30 seconds "notice", you should have done that in a much more formal way, "Coach that was the 30 second horn." Then give the ball to white a LOT sooner than you did.

It's easy to avoid these situations if you set the clock for half time, then everyone knows what's up without you being the heavy. Why didn't that happen?

That's probably valid. I figured getting 3 minutes instead of 30 seconds would've covered any confusion. Silly me. Next time, I won't figure, and I'll do as you suggest. "Here's your 30 seconds, Coach."

Remember, Scrapper, it's best if you usually treat a coach like you'd treat a 4 year old. It's fatal to tell a 4 year old, "You need to be in bed in 1 minute" unless you really have a stop watch going. You must be exactly precise, while at the same time keeping a neutral emotional tone -- no sarcasm. Then he's got no room to argue about anything, and if he does argue, you know it's his problem not yours.

It doesn't matter what language it's in if you've never opened it.

You've already said too much imo.

Just tell him once "Coach, he pushed off to get the rebound". That's all the explanation needed and required. Then turn around and get the game going. After that, you simply react to what the coach subsequently does. If he wants to keep complaining---->one warning, then shut him down.

When coaches ask that I use variations of: "You want it fast or do you want it right. Pick one." I can get away with that since I have been around awhile. It sounds like we should all prepare ourselves for another long season of.....See the Coach Yell on TV.....See then Yell in the local HS game.

This is pretty ridiculous. The only thing I can think of is you don't know how to spell T becaue I pray you gave the coach a T.

Yesterday I had a game and neither coach knew me since I'm new to the area. So I have a play and the coach has the same view as me. There is some contact, but his player had the opportunity to shoot the ball and make the basket so we play on. The coach is complaining for a while and then he says something to my partner like, "You need to help him." Mistake #1. I'm going to trail across from the table and this coach is yelling, "You need to get some courage, you need to get some courage." So I'm thinking, "Uh yeah, he really doesn't know me." WHACK! I stayed opposite the table, but in those situations I don't know if there is any better moment than going right back beside the (sitting) coach after a play like that. :D
His team won the game, but I will probably be on his list now. I don't think coaches should have that much power to block an official or play a part (50%) in Mississippi in the playoffs. Oh well, if the same thing happened, I would do the same thing.

That's essentially what I did. I tried to say "He used his free arm to push off," but the coach talked over me. So I said, "Ok, Coach, it was a good box out", and went to my new position. He didn't want an explanation, so I didn't try to give one (more than that one time).

tomegun,
here in the Tricitys Washington coaches and ADs get together and
pick refs for district and regional playoffs, we usually send a list of the top 25-30 officials in our associaion and they get thier choises depending on availabiltiy. Not a great system.
Carl

Stop at that point. This is a no-brainer technical no matter how you look at it.