"You can't coach"
 

Last night, JV game. We got our press clicking in the second quarter and ran off a bunch of points in a row. The opposing coach was getting frustrated and taking it out on one official in particular. After he called a shooting foul on one of her players, she said something that set him off. He didn't issue a T, but came over to her and had a conversation that lasted about 30 seconds. I heard both "you can't coach" and "you are the worst coach I've seen."

Granted, I couldn't hear every word. And some of the coach's shouted comments from earlier were T-worthy. But I still couldn't believe what he said.

At the half, as the officials were getting their jackets, the opposing V coach was there (benches were first row of bleachers, right next to table) and she said something that caused him to get his whistle out of his pocket, blow it, and issue a T on her. After he left, she told us she said "that was the most unprofessionial thing I've ever heard a ref say."

On top of it all, after starting the 3rd quarter with two FTs, we got the ball but he said the arrow (pointing our way) should change, and he allowed the opposing coach to retain her coaching box privileges.

There was another confrontation AFTER the game (as the handshake lines were forming), as he came up to her with his whistle out, trying to hand it to her. Secondhand, I heard he said something like "you want to ref?" and she said something like "get out of my face, don't talk to me."

I've been coaching for 11 years, and he has been a JV ref the whole time. Dozens of newer officials have moved past him into the varsity ranks, and last night I think I saw why. I'm not absolving the opposing coaches from blame in any way. But that piece of officiating was the worst I've ever seen.

I almost forgot...

I went early and watched the freshman game, sitting near our team's bench. Our coach was mad about something, and after getting his comments out, the official looked right at him and calmly said "I respect your opinion" and hustled away. :D

That's good game management, in my opinion.

You gotta get out more.
You ain't seen me work.

Oh, the stories I could tell . . . about the time I tossed a coach, and my partner told the coach it was OK to come back AND coach his team WITH his coaching box privileges (yes, it was very early in my career and very late in his). Or the time I watched in AWE as a coach completely berated a VARSITY official in a VARSITY contest, calling him things that would get blacked out here, and he knodded his head and walked away. Or, my VARSITY contest where my co-official TOSSED the coach, then decided he didn't want to, so he took back one of the technicals AND told the coach that he could have his coaching box privileges back if he was nice the rest of the game. Oh yes, it true!

I'm certain that you missed the previous part to those sentences that went something like, "Please stick to the play and don't get personal. How would you like it if I said ..." ;)

Spoken with the grace and good judgement of a true moderator :D

Coach:

I've often dreamed about something like this.

Coaches can whine and complain and cast dispersions on a referees ability, but our code of ethics prevents us from doing likewise.

Coaches can say "That was a terrible call", but we can never say, "Coach, your play calling is terrible."

Probably out of frustration, this guy broke the code. I agree he shouldn't have, but I think your reaction is equally over the top.

AMEN!!!!! :D

Peace

What exactly is my reaction that you are saying is over the top? :confused: I did nothing last night--it was the opposing team. Are you saying my posting this today and calling it "the worst I've ever seen" is over the top? Because that is my opinion.

Maybe we just have really good officials here. I can't recall ever seeing or hearing an official make things personal. Maybe that is "hooray for the officials in the other 750 games I've coached" or "boo for this guy"; either way.

It sounds like the guy was quite the cowboy. I also think that it was very unwise for the varsity coach to say anything to him at halftime. That's not very professional either.

It makes one wonder about his partner in all of this. Glad I wasn't there.

One of these days, after I've grown a pair of cajones as proportionally large to my physique as these:

http://img.fark.com/images/squirrel.jpg

I'm going to turn to the bench, pick a player, and tell him to go check himself into the game. Then, when the coach asks me why I've done this, I'm gonna say that since he was tryint to referee, I thought I'd try coaching for a little bit. :D

Actually, I have a tendency to nip this crap early in the game, and can rely on the officials I work with to do the same and back me when I do, while I also back them when needed.

JV coach was an a$$. Official was wrong. Varsity coach was foolish. Official was wrong.

A good example of how not to manage a game.

And the coaches in your area NEVER get personal with the officials, right?

That's a lack of balls imo.

Which explains why you're a coach and I'm an official......

What's the difference between your coach "getting his comments out" and the official that you're b!tching about "getting his comments out"? Why is one OK and the other one wrong?