Coach's idiotic perception of officiating
 

On my way out of the gym last night after a varsity game, I ran into the coach of the freshman team. After a couple of quick comments, he says, "boy, I sure hate 3-person."

I said, "really, we officials love 3-person. We get better looks at calls and we get off-ball stuff that used to get missed."

Then he says, "yeah, but part of coaching is getting away with as much as you can."

I just said, "OK coach, gotta go." What a marooooooon!!!!!!

WOW! thats funny.

But not surprising...unfortunately that's the attitude that is out there. As a football coach, I was chewing out one of my players on the sideline for a very illegal (and dangerous) chop block from behind (he happens to be my son) and one of the parents who was close by said "It's not a foul if the ref doesn't call it"...to which I responded, "Tell that to the kid who just had to be helped off the field". That attitude really makes me sick to my stomache.

As a coach, I hate that attitude. Back when I started college, I told my dad once that I wanted to coach college basketball. He said that he didn't think I would, because winning wasn't the most important thing to me. That kind of attitude, do what you can get away with, is a horrible thing to be teaching young people. JMO, but I am 100% right on this.:(

Please do not get me wrong. I took the stance that it was funny that a coach would even bring this up to an official who he or she may see again in the very near future. I am fully aware that coaches try to get away with as much as possible without being caught.

The funny thing about it is that it's not only the coaches , AD, Parents and fans. I started another thread about ejecting a parent who threw an item at the official becuase he didn't like the call. I gather my partners and had the person excorted out. Two days later My assignor sent me an email saying that they don't want me at that gym anymore this year. How funny is that. The AD then later expalined who he was. I told him I didn't check for ID's as to who attends the game. All who act that way is dangerous not only to officials but players as well. The mentality out there is so out of whack..

Are all coaches a shade of red in your area??

This is heresay, but I've heard from multiple veteran officials that in my area, there are schools in the more competitive leagues (don't know if it's coaches, athletic directors, parents, etc., or some combination thereof) that push against 3-person crews being assigned to their varsity games when the officials' association contracts are arranged and negotiated - and not because of the money. Sad commentary, if it's true.

I can understand why many coaches don't like 3 officials in many circumstances. Personally, I have officiated almost exclusively 3 whistle coverage the past 5 seasons (HS and College). Many officials "think" they know the coverage when they really don't. One of our observers taped several HS games in our area and there were 3 sets of eyes "on ball" for most of the game. People that don't do it enough, tend to follow the ball far to long IMHO.

For example, last night I worked a game with 2 veteran officials and after the game the losing (home team) coach came in and talked to us. In the 3 years his conference has had 3 officials, he had never seen so many off ball calls. He mentioned that his players are bad about grabbing jerseys, pushing through screens, etc... He also said he hasn't addressed it in practice because it doesn't get seen in games usually. ~ I'm not saying we are that good or had a perfect game, but the coaches are learning exactly what we are supposed to be looking at and what we aren't supposed to be looking at.

Why is anyone surprised or outraged by this? I mean, really? When was the last time Greg Maddux or Tommy Glavine ever told the umpire "No, that was actually a ball...I was just working off the plate to get the close call, but I can't really accept that strike, it's just plain wrong." If that mentality prevailed then the Florida Marlins must forfeit their 1997 NLCS game 7 win against the Braves because Livan Hernandez didn't throw a pitch in the strike zone from about the 3rd inning on. And why? Because he worked the ball further and further outside the strike zone and kept getting the call.

I don't recall the year, but in the early 70's the Cowboys beat the Vikings in a playoff game when Drew Pearson (I think) caught a late TD pass after subtly pushing the defender off with a small shove to the hip. Afterward, Vikes coach Bud Grant noted what he called a basketball rebound shove by the receiver and he said it with admiration. He got gamed, he knew it, and he wasn't angry about.

........And offensive linemen never grab pass rushers and soccer players never take dives and less talented and smaller centers never push and hold Shaquille O'Neal and tennis players always overturn every wrong line call in their favor because it is the right thing to do and Whitey Ford and Gaylord Perry were the only pitchers to ever doctor a baseball and Bill McCartney and Colorado football forfieted their win over Missouri when they realized they had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on an inadvertantly allowed 5th down (oh that's right, they didn't...instead CU won the national championship that year) and baseball teams never steal signs and rugby locks never tape handles to their legs to facilitate the lineout lift (just trust me on that one) and golfers never play mulligans or winter rules in July and groundskeepers never doctor infields to the home team's advantage and home football teams always face the sun from their sidelines and hockey players never...well I don't know enough about hockey to know how they game situations, but I'm sure they do...and teams winning in the waning moments of a game never point out timing errors that would add time to the clock and football players have never used stickum and boxers have never kidney punched or head-butted an opponent when the referee's view was blocked and shortstops & 2nd basemen never get the front out of a double play "in the vicinity" of 2nd base and on and on and on and on and on........

Of course players and coaches try to get away with as much as possible! DUH! And I'm sure no one on this board ever tried to game a situation or get away with as much as possible when they played. Riiiiiightttttt.

Am I saying this okay? No. Am I suprised or outraged by this behavior? Again, not at all. Do I try to curtail it as an official? Of course I do. Do I get indignant when I discover a coach or player put one over on me? No, not really.

Can you say "TRAINING"? For the first part of that post, it sounds as if there needs to be more training in your area. I know where I am from, we have four Fridays in a gym where a team scrimmages and we teach officiating skills (2 and 3 person). Those who cannot officiate in the 3 person area, do not get post season (where we use that in all tournament games).

Yea, it makes it tough on the coaches sometimes, but someday, they will have to realize that there are good officials out there that call that off ball stuff and if they don't teach the players to do it right, their team will suffer!

We have a District thats (finally) getting into 3-Man this year. In scrimmage pre Season I was talking to a very relaxed coach sitting in stands watching.

I know fairly well from refereeing his games last few years. Mutual respect.

Asked about three man: He said he was against it. His teams are very physical and they don't like a tight game. He coach's agressively.

I don't think he's a moron at all, but we'll soon see how good a coach he is!

You don't watch too much Bugs Bunny, do you?

There are many ways of "getting away with as much as possible." To the coach who teaches his player to stay in the lane longer and longer if there is no three second call, I say "I don't blame you." To the coach that teaches his players to poke the shooter in the stomach because nobody is looking there, I say "Sir, you should be dragged down the top of the levee behind a 1975 Ford Courier."**







**a throwback to my childhood, we never did it, just threatened it :D

Can't find it on TV anymore. Gotta go rent DVDs. I'm sure it's on some obscure cable channel, but it's not on my cable system. :(

Part of it is the coaches, part of it is us.

Coaches: We've seen all kinds of example of it. I've had one team this year where their philosophy was to play very agressively, and bring a deep bench. Their coach figures, at least some of the time, that the refs will get tired of calling fouls.

Us: Because we all call the game differently, the players are under the necessity of feeling out the refs. The only way to do that is push the envelope to see where we'll call the fouls.

There is a team in our area that does the same thing. They are relentless. They start at the frosh level, fine tune it at JV and by Varsity time they are a threat to win the sectionals. which they did last year.

I had them last year. My partner was a "talk to them kind of guy". By the end of 1st half of the frosh game he stopped talking and just kept blowing. It took us 4 hours and 15 minutes for the frosh/JV doubleheader. The scorekeeper added the fouls up and said between the two games 141 fouls. It was miserable. They won both of those games by 40 points or so. They were and still are relentless.....

They're all the same
 

I've got a brother-in-law who has coached at various levels and the first thing he told me when I decided to start officiating was to remember the majority of coaches are on a mission to put a doubt in your mind so maybe they will get the next call, whether it is right or not. With a three-man crew, that decreases their odds, which frustrates the morons who are on some benches.