Hey, Spaman29, Tell Us MORE!!!

[rainmaker]

....I want all the details about the T that you gave to a coach for abusing his own players. You mentioned it briefly in another thread, but not nearly enough information. I've seen the sentence in the books that says we can theoretically give a T for this, but I've never talked to someone who actually gave one. I want to know...

What did the coach say, or do? Had you thought about this before, or was it just an intuitive thing? Did you know before the game that the coach might act like this?

What words did you say to the coach? To the table? In what ways did your partner help you -- or not? Did you have to eject the coach in the end?

What was the reaction from the coach? From the AD? From the players? From the parents? From your assignor?

Looking back now, do you wish you had done anything differently?

[Mark Padgett]

Juulie - I can't answer for him, but as you know, I am on the Board of our local rec league and therefore have powers beyond the scope of most of the other refs (two other refs are on the board) when I work those games. We are responsible to making sure none of the kids in the program are verbally abused by anyone, including their own coaches.

Last year I kicked a coach out of a game for yelling at one of his players (8th grade girl). First I reminded him that I was a Board member (which he already knew) and that he signed a code of conduct prior to the season stating, among other things, he would not verbally abuse his players, and that he was violating that and needed to knock it off immediately and apologize to the girl in front of the team.

He told me he was sorry (not sarcastically, but seemed sincere), however he then proceeded to continue to berate the girl! I tossed him right there and then, and reported this to our voicemail line immediately after the game. The executive committee of the Board held a telephone conference within a few days and kicked the guy out of the league - forever! Two weeks later, I had the same team and the parents of the girl who was involved brought me cookies. I thanked them but told them I couldn't accept them, and besides, they weren't supposed to have food in the gym. They took the cookies outside and fed them to the birds.

This year that same coach has a younger kid in the program and wanted to coach. NOPE! This season starts in two weeks and I know I will have some of his kids games. The guy hasn't been banished from spectating, but the first time he opens his mouth to me on anything, he's toast. We have a zero tolerance rule on yelling at refs in this league and it covers parents.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I find nothing wrong with charging a coach with a technical foul for conduct against his/her players that are not appropriate, but I think that the age of the players involved is what determines how an official handles the situation.

If the players are adults, then the players can handle themselves. But if the players on minors then that is a whole new ball game; that means jr. H.S. and H.S., AAU and YBOA, CYO, and any other youth age players. My guideline is if the coaches conduct would be considered felony child abuse then I think that the officials have to take care of business.

I have had two situations in 31 years where I had a coach act in an inappropriate manner. The first situation was in the YBOA Girls' Nat'l. in a 13 & under game. During the first quarter the coach never used profanity but was just the most abusive person you could imagine to a group of young girls. During the break between the first and second quarter I discretely told the team's scorekeeper on the bench (a mother of one of the players, that her coach's conduct with his players would be considered felony child abuse in most states). Just before we started the second quarter I saw her say something to the coach; he was on his best behavior the rest of the game. The second situation happened the same summer with the same partner in an AAU Boys' N.I.C. (again 13 & under). One of the assistant coaches was the father of one of the players, he was also a police officer. His son made a turnover was was taken out of the game. The father practically picked his son up and throw him onto the bench. My partner who is a minister saw it and stopped the game and told the assistand coach he had to leave the gymnasium. We did not "T" him and he told us he was not going if we did not "T". But we convinced the head coach to make him leave. Within two minutes he was back in the gym with the site manager. He had not told the site manager why he had been told to leave. When the site manager found out, the manager was ready to physically throw the guy out of the building.

Officials are put in a difficult position when these situations arise in youth age games but we have to put the welfare of the players first.

[Spaman_29]

Well what did I do? Here is the situation - I was mentoring a younger official and we were officiating in a 8th grade boys league. Within the first 4 minutes team A started to rack up the score on team B. Team B's coach started yelling at his players after the first shot went in for A. By the start of the second quarter it was already 20-4 and really not looking much better for team B. I had warned coach B for coaching box violations withing the first 4 minutes of the game, he shrugged it off. We had a time out in the second quarter and my partner asked me what he should do about this coach yelling, we spoke briefly and then had to move on. The very next play we had team A with the ball and they missed an easy lay-up, Team B rebounds and starts to move up the court, well there was an injury on team A, which happened right in front of me. Because I felt it was serious I stopped the game. Coach B goes NUTS, comes across the court and meets me well past half court, He recieved his T then. He went back to his bench grudingly and as I was reporting he started to chirp again. I was very loud and stated, "Do you want to stay here?" He continuted, and I repeated even louder the same thing. He finally got the point and didn't say another word the rest of the game.

My feelings on penalizing a coach for his/her actions - As I mentioned in the other thread I don't look for opportunities to T a coach, If a coach breaks the bounds that we have given them then they must face the consequences. But if a coach is belittling I seem to be much more open to help his exit from the game.