In an earlier post, I described the officiating at a very good game I watched on Friday night. Before that game I was watching a very lop-sided game at a different school. What was interesting to me was to listen to the coaches. I was about 3 feet from them (since this was the only seat in the gym when I got there) and I heard everything they were saying to each other however quiet. Nothing was going their way, but that was NOT because of poor officiating. But they were completely oblivious. And then when their girls were finally playing well for a few seconds, the coaches were huddling trying to figure out how to influence the ref to change a call. I'm not talking about bribery or anything like that, but just what to say if they talked to him. Becuase of this conversation they completely missed the opportunity to praise their players and give a little positive reinforcement. They were not discussing what was going wrong, or whether maybe they should pull their big post player who was banging around and getting called for it. It just confirmed for me that when the coach is yelling at the refs it usually means he/she isn't doing his/her job. I don't care how little these coaches were getting paid -- it was too much.

We talk all the time about technical fouls and whether they'll make the game better on not. I think many times, a T makes the game better for the team that it's called against. Too many coaches are either constantly complaining to the officials or they are constantly yelling at their players. When we hit'em with a T, they have to sit down and abandon both straegies.

Lo and behold, they're suddenly forced to coach! :eek:

I have found both in coaching and officiating, that when a coach is at the end of their "coaching knowledge" the only thing left is to put the blame on the players or the officials. This is sad but true in many instances. If a coach has nothing better to do during a game than watch for a 3-second call or try to spot all the traveling calls he/she thinks we missed, then maybe they are in the wrong line of work. The art of coaching, sad to say, has been lost by many schools. All that is left is the yelling and screaming. Both in the game and at practice.