Jr high crowd insane

[81artmonk]

I am sure you have all heard something like this, but I doubt from a game of Jr high players. I coached my team in a tournament where we ran over the competition to make it to the championship and the final game was a complete nightmare.
It was double elim, so even if we lost the 1st game we had to turn around and play again since we hadn't lost yet. After we lost the 1st game the crowd that came to support us went crazy. Yelling obscenities at the refs and us as coaches. All game long this went on. I was thinking, Gesh, these are only jr highers, 11-13 and their friends and parents are acting as if this is an NBA title game!!
The refs came up to me and threatened me with getting control of our fans, which I had to laugh, we're in the middle of a game, what exactly am I suppose to do? leave the bench, walk across the court(between players in an active game) and go yell at parents who are paying attention to the game??
I basically told the refs, what do you expect me to do about it?? I really don't have any power except over my players actions. The game was stopped, and the announcer told the parents to calm down or the team would be accessed a T for their actions. At halftime, 4 parents came down from the stands and got in a verbal fight with me because I was having a talk with my girls(team) and I wouldn't let the parents get a word in edge wise. When I left to a drink of water, the four parents procceeded to confuse my team and flip me off after having their word.
We eventually won the game and you would have thought they won the NBA. Parents hugging kids and never once saying good job coach. About 1/2 of my team I really don't like anyway since they are self absorbed, selfish, players with major attitude. As an aside, they weren't that way when I tried them out for the team, they had hung out with the wrong crowd all year and good players turned into ugly players in a few short months(short version of the story). During the awards the ceremony, I took the mic and praised the other team for their class and sportsmanship during the game, and told them it was a pleasure having coached against them. That didn't sit well with our fans(parents) Oh well, I don't reward classless, unsportsmenlike play and really didn't care. I had never experienced out of control parents and the crazy poor moral judgement that displayed bofore.
I almost don't want to come back next year. It's really sad to see the poor example parents set for their kids.

[jdw3018]

My worst fan experiences have all been at the Jr. High level...but it sounds like yours was especially bad....

[deecee]

Im sorry I dont buy it...seems like a bunch of bs to me

you never saw this coming -- this was a complete shock?

right and I am the reincarnation of bozo the clown -- go cry elsewhere.

what could you do? I see many choices

1) take a timeout and ask the parents to relax and calm down.
2) tell them to coach and leave
3) bench the players whos parents/fans were being disruptive
4) pull the team if the parents didnt start behaving
5) tell the game management it was ok with you to remove disrputive parents
6) tell the officials its ok with you to assess a T because of the fans and hope that they get the message and shut up
7) embarass the fans that are doing this

You are lucky I wasn't officiating this game because after I warned you about your fans at this level I would have been issuing you T's everytime they crossed the line (along with an ejection of said fan) and after maybe 2 or 3 I would clear out ALL your fans or offer you a forfeit. Just what I would do in this level game.

BUt YOU HAD choices YOU CHOOSE to do nothing except whine -- if I had some cheese I would email it over to you

[81artmonk]

I agree with some of your options, but disagree with most. First off, it wasn't my school where we were playing and I wasn't paying attention to the stands to see who was being rowdy. I, being the coach, was concentrating on the game.
Some of your options were in my mind pretty foolish. Bench the players whose parents were acting crazy, ok, take an out of control situation and make it worse by adding fuel to the fire. That's smart. When someone is angry you don't provoke them. Your pull the team issue, why punish the players for how their parents are acting?? I see your point but don't agree. I did tell the person who was running the tournament to remove people who were rowdy. Just my opinion of course but I don't feel it is my responsibility to run crowd control. I am the coach and that's what I do. Here's a thought, if you as a ref don't like it, why is my issue to correct. Why not stop the game, go to the powers that be running the tournament and tell them that if something isn't done that T's will be issued and you will stop the game again people will be removed. I don't feel that my players, the other players or the coaches have the responsibility to stop this or control it. If you would like to stop the game and let us talk to the crowd sure, but beyond that I disagree with placing that much resonibility on us when we aren't crowd control but coaches. In my mind security of that school was in charge of actions like that, not us.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by 81artmonk

Just my opinion of course but I don't feel it is my responsibility to run crowd control. I am the coach and that's what I do.

You're correct. The behavior of the crowd isn't your responsibility, unless you also happen to be game management. If there's a problem with the fans, the officials should have game management take care of the problem, or game management should take care of the problem themselves before the officials ask them to.

[mick]

Originally Posted by deecee

...You are lucky I wasn't officiating this game because after I warned you about your fans at this level I would have been issuing you T's everytime they crossed the line (along with an ejection of said fan) and after maybe 2 or 3 I would clear out ALL your fans or offer you a forfeit. Just what I would do in this level game.

BUt YOU HAD choices YOU CHOOSE to do nothing except whine -- if I had some cheese I would email it over to you

Why are you so upset ?

[BillyMac]

I used to coach a middle school team and on a few occasions, when our fans, especially our student fans, were getting a little too rowdy, for example, yelling while our opponents were shooting free throws, I would call a time out, walk across the court, and ask them to calm down, or I would have the site director remove them from the gymnasium. If the "burned" time out had cost me the game, I wouldn't care, sportsmanship and being a good host are more important than a win, and by the way, I really, really, liked to win.

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

I used to coach a middle school team and on a few occasions, when our fans, especially our student fans, were getting a little too rowdy, for example, yelling while our opponents were shooting free throws, I would call a time out, walk across the court, and ask them to calm down, or I would have the site director remove them from the gymnasium. If the "burned" time out had cost me the game, I wouldn't care, sportsmanship and being a good host are more important than a win.

Yeah, and if there were more coaches like you were, we wouldn't have near as much to discuss here!

Good show!

[refnrev]

Always remember... the younger the players the dumber the parents... every sport... every town... every state... and especially in tournaments.

[deecee]

Mick -- I dont know -- I just dont know....

Once again this is Jr.High with NBA expectations -- a coach should be responsible for their fans, not in the rules sense but in the common sense way.

I am just saying that you had refs that took it way to easy -- and it sounds like you dont have control of your team either jmo.

[dblref]

Originally Posted by deecee

Mick -- I dont know -- I just dont know....

Once again this is Jr.High with NBA expectations -- a coach should be responsible for their fans, not in the rules sense but in the common sense way.

I am just saying that you had refs that took it way to easy -- and it sounds like you dont have control of your team either jmo.

You need to learn to better comprehend what was written. He never said there was a problem in the game with his team, he said the problem was with the parents. It isn't the coach's responsibility to control the fans.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by 81artmonk

...Yelling obscenities at the refs and us as coaches. All game long this went on. I was thinking, Gesh, these are only jr highers, 11-13 and their friends and parents are acting as if this is an NBA title game!!

If the part in blue hadn't happened would you be just as appalled? B/c I'm sure you have witnessed the part in red quite a few times without posting here.

Welcome to our world 83rickeysanders.

[DC_Ref12]

Originally Posted by 81artmonk

Yelling obscenities at the refs and us as coaches. All game long this went on. I was thinking, Gesh, these are only jr highers, 11-13 and their friends and parents are acting as if this is an NBA title game!!

This is an insult to NBA fans.

[sj]

Originally Posted by deecee

Im sorry I dont buy it...seems like a bunch of bs to me

you never saw this coming -- this was a complete shock?

right and I am the reincarnation of bozo the clown -- go cry elsewhere.

what could you do? I see many choices

1) take a timeout and ask the parents to relax and calm down.
2) tell them to coach and leave
3) bench the players whos parents/fans were being disruptive
4) pull the team if the parents didnt start behaving
5) tell the game management it was ok with you to remove disrputive parents
6) tell the officials its ok with you to assess a T because of the fans and hope that they get the message and shut up
7) embarass the fans that are doing this

You are lucky I wasn't officiating this game because after I warned you about your fans at this level I would have been issuing you T's everytime they crossed the line (along with an ejection of said fan) and after maybe 2 or 3 I would clear out ALL your fans or offer you a forfeit. Just what I would do in this level game.

BUt YOU HAD choices YOU CHOOSE to do nothing except whine -- if I had some cheese I would email it over to you

It sounds like your reaction is equal to that of the parents. It seems you're going to get mad, stay mad and react accordingly. Maybe number 1 and most likely number 5 are the only options. Don't punish the kids. Punish the fans. Issuing T's is out of the question. The kids most likely are already embarassed. Numbers 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 would only make things worse. After you determine who needs to go just call a time out, tell game management, and don't start the game again until they're gone.