Young Officials

[youngwhistle]

Hi all,

I should first say I am only in my third year officating. So when I talk about young officials I am I guess including myself to a certain extent. New young officials are needed badly. (at least in our geographical region) I am the son of a former basketball coach and long time official. So it was easy for me to get games and I had paid attention as a kid when my dad was officiating. I got to see how he and other officials handled situations. Therefore when I started I knew what to expect and had a jump on judgement and the "art" of officiating.

As I work with other young officials I see them struggle terribly with the "art" of officiating. I am not talking about knowledge of rules, mechanics, or the things you learn from manuals. I am talking about the "art" of selling calls, communicating with an angry coach, player etc.

The other night for example it was my turn to work the pre-lim game with the crew I am on and we're working in some new officials. I am familar with many of the coaches and their personalities and I knew one them was a coach who "nips" all game. Typically it isn't that bad, but he can be brutal to new officials. Anyway the guy i was working with made a backcourt violation call that most likely was wrong. Of course coach freaks out (even though the game was a 20+ spread) and made an example of the kid. I could tell the kid was going to "tank" after the getting butt chewed. So on the next dead ball I gave him a "wink" and said "good call that coach doesn't know what he's talking about". Even though I knew probably was the wrong call...I just gave him my backing and I discussed the play after the game when the time was right.

Anyway I was wondering what you guys have for new officials when they make mistakes. Because if they don't get good advice...they probably won't stick with officiating too long.