Officiating Philosophy ?

[Coltdoggs]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

On the other hand, maybe the team that is ahead is preparing for their next game which will be against a really good team and they will need to be able to press them. The coach is working on the press and wants his kids to learn how to run it effectively. It's unfortunate that a team is losing badly, but it's not our job to "teach" the coach how we think he should be coaching.

What the OP'er did was feed into the mythology floating around out there that officials decide who wins the game by calling it inconsistently. What wasn't a foul early - before the 25 point lead - has suddenly become a foul. That's not right.

Rock...At the lower level....Sorry...there is an element of sportsmanship that's being overlooked if you are pressing with a 25 point lead. You probably "worked on your press" this game to get that much of a lead anyway. Why not work on another area of your game like perfecting your offensive sets with crisp passing and not shooting the ball?

Most youth leagues I've worked don't allow a press past 20 but if you want to continue to pile on against what is obviously a sub-par team that can't break a press...there is just no place in youth sports for that. It's not win at all costs by as much as you can....that's for professional sports or a-holes and even pros will back off.

I agree that consistency is our goal but at lower level, I can and will stand by my position on incidental contact. I can tell you that it only takes about 3calls before the coach puts his sportsmanship cap back on. Incidental contact is a judgement call on our part and if you want to press with a 20+ point lead....fine, just make sure you are not making contact I deem more than incidental.

Snags- good question....at some point the pressing team who has backed out is going to get back into it and it's going to be at a point (like under 20 points) at which point I don't really have a problem with it because as stated...most use the 20 point as the benchmark for allowing this...In those cases where that rule is not in play...that's what I work with in my philosophy on this matter.