Barking Assistant

[rainmaker]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

I keep away from them too. They're usually unprofessional, and they also usually just piss people off. You're just inviting a response when you use a wiseazz remark. And if the response is also wiseazz, you've now got a real decision to make, don't you.

Example (I can give a good example from my own experience for almost any mistake there is!): I read on this board that if a coach asks something like, "How can you call that a foul?" or "Why would she just throw the ball out of bounds if there wasn't a foul?" an official could say, "That's a coaching issue." It really didn't sound that smart-azz to me, in fact I thought it sounded pretty reasonable (first mistake!). Next game, I had the perfect opportunity to use that one, and I yanked it out of the bag. Talk about backfire! There were some dads of players (from the coach's school!), who were real jerks and were razzing the girls and the team as a whole. When they heard me say that, they started giving him heck. He was furious at me the rest of the game, and although I never had to T him, the game just went into the crapper.

The only smart-azz remark that I've used successfully, but still rarely, is to say to a player who wants to comment on my officiating (and I always say it quietly), " If you want to change shirts, you can finish reffing, and I"ll play for you, but your coach definitely doesn't want me on your team!" The girl will usually smile, if I do, and shut up. But I only use it about once a year.