Officiating philosophy

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Tio

The visiting team and coach are more paranoid than the home team. They are usually travel weary, have had the fans jeering them since warm ups, and now have 3 officials that the coach has never seen work before. Even at the collegiate level, there is jockeying going on. North Carolina played BYU in a tournament last year in Vegas and wouldn't play with the Mountain West officials (who normally work BYU games) and so a Pac-10 crew was brought in last minute. So, I try really hard not to do anything to fuel any perception of unfairness. One thing I try to do is never spend more time with a home coach during introductions. That is a sure way to start building a negative perception.

This perception can occur in high school games also. Many years ago, a few years after Title IX kicked in, the two top high school girls teams (for several years) in Connecticut never faced each other because they played in two different leagues for regular season games, and played in two different classes for state tournament games. Team A invited Team B to its Holiday Tournament, a much anticipated game by girls basketball fans across the state. Each school had it's regular season games officiated by two different local IAABO boards, in the case of Team A, the home team, and Tournament host, my local board. The coach of the visiting team, Team B, wanted this "big" game to be officiated by his own local board's officials, that officiated all his games, in his own league, both home games, and road games. The led to a debate, not only between the two coaches, both very strong willed, but between the two local IAABO boards over territory and jurisdiction. Team B actually threatened to withdrawal from the Tournament unless it could "bring it's own officials". I'm not 100% sure how it turned out, this was over 25 years ago, but I believe that our local board refused to allow another local board to officiate in our territory, which forced the issue to be settled between the two two coaches, and the game was played, with the home school's local board's officials.

Also, rookie officials, take note of Tio's statement: "One thing I try to do is never spend more time with a home coach during introductions. That is a sure way to start building a negative perception." This is an excellent suggestion, because perception and reality often get confused, which should be avoided as much as possible.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Also, rookie officials, take note of Tio's statement: "One thing I try to do is never spend more time with a home coach during introductions. That is a sure way to start building a negative perception." This is an excellent suggestion, because perception and reality often get confused, which should be avoided as much as possible.

What if you spend too much time with the visiting coach? What if you know the visiting coach more? Why should it matter who is home or visiting in that situations?

Just asking.

Peace

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

What if you spend too much time with the visiting coach? What if you know the visiting coach more? Why should it matter who is home or visiting in that situations?

Good point. As many have suggested throughout this thread, officials should be "blind" to home and visitors. Officials should spend the same exact pregame time with each coach, in fact, it's probably best to use a visible count, to maintain proper "game management".

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Good point. As many have suggested throughout this thread, officials should be "blind" to home and visitors. Officials should spend the same exact pregame time with each coach, in fact, it's probably best to use a visible count, to maintain proper "game management".

I know there was some humor in your response. I just have one more serious question.

Why are we spending so much time with the coaches in the first place? I might only talk to a coach during the captain's meeting and that is it.

Peace

[Scrapper1]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Why are we spending so much time with the coaches in the first place? I might only talk to a coach during the captain's meeting and that is it.

This is a good point. I think BillyMac's comment was headed in the right direction, but he should've just left out the part about the home or visitor coach. If you chit-chat with either coach in a "social" manner, the other coach will immediately become paranoid. I know this firsthand from a D3 college game last season.

I was the U1 and during the time when were standing at the table before introductions and the anthem, the R went over to the visiting coach and just started shooting the breeze. I turned to our U2 and said, "What is he doing? Setting up a golf date for the weekend?" As soon as I finished saying that, I see the home coach looking at me with his palms up and a WTF look on his face. He says to me, "What's going on over there?" I just shrugged.

R comes back to the table and I told him the home coach was wondering what your conversation was about. So he had to go and chat up the home coach to re-assure him that there was nothing to worry about.

[JRutledge]

The only thing I might do as it relates to the home and visiting coach is it is not uncommon for people to shake the hands of both coaches before the contest and wish them good luck. Usually that involves the visiting team first and then the home team. But that only takes 30 seconds between both coaches and we move on. Other than that there is no real good reason I want to talk to a coach in the first place.

Peace

[BillyMac]

In a perfect world, the only time we should be spending time with the head coach is during the pregame captains/head coaches/officials meeting:

"Coaches. Are your players properly equipped and do your players know how to wear their uniforms properly? If so, coaches and captains. My partner and I expect that you all will be practicing good sportsmanship. Have fun."

However, it's not a perfect world. How often will varsity officials be observing the junior varsity game that precedes the varsity game, and the head varsity coach, maybe from either team, but most often from the home team, actually comes over and sits down in the bleachers with the varsity officials? Maybe it's just to say hello. Maybe it's to ask a question about a rule or interpretation. Or, maybe it's more than that. Maybe the varsity officials may have been officiating this coach's games for over twenty years, and the coach feels that a professional bond has been formed and asks how the season's going, did your families enjoy the holidays, did you hear that Official Smith tore a muscle doing his game last week, etc. Another scenario from the real world is that the officials may often dress in the coach's office, and he's in there before the game, getting a score book, getting some water bottles, tape, etc. and decides he wants to "shoot the breeze" for a few minutes.

These are situations that should be avoided, because, as I've stated earlier, perception often gets confused with reality. Although these situations should be avoided, sometimes it would be awkward to avoid them, and all we can do is answer in a friendly, but terse, manner, and hope that the coach goes away as soon as possible. Maybe there is a professional bond that has formed between the official and the coach. After all, they both share a passion for basketball. I, in fact, relish these bonds, but not at the expense of being perceived as a "homer".