Angry Coach at Halftime
 

The recent thread on coaches being in the officials' dressing room jogged the following from my memory bank...

Halftime, HS boys V, my 2 partners and I are in our dressing room, the coaches office. As at most schools, it is adjacent to the locker room and the home team coach is railing at his kids who trailed at half. Among the loudest and longest of his many very loud, obscenity-laced "comments" was a diatribe regarding what he, in short, considered to be our poor, biased officiating in the 1st half and how his boys couldn't really expect to compete in an "8 vs 5" game. He obviously aimed these comments at us in the next room with its paper-thin walls. This was in my 2nd year of calling HS games and I wanted to T him up for his "commentary". My partners, who had been calling in this area for years, just laughed and said don't worry about it, its halftime and he's in his locker room outside our jurisdiction, or words to that affect. I really don't recall how the 2nd half went or who won the game.

What would you do in a similar situation? I still haven't completely resolved this one in my mind...

That coach can stay in his lockerroom for the 2nd half.

When a coach directly attacks your personal integrity that conduct warrants a flagrant technical foul. This is HS athletics and the wrong message cannot be allowed to be transmitted to the kids.

There is nothing that puts our jurisdiction on hold between when we arrive on the floor and when we leave the visual confines of the playing area.

That was not a good reason on your partner's part. I guess your partner would have the let the coach directly cuss him out b/c they were away from the court?

Since you could hear the coach through the walls, obviously, he could also hear you. Why didn't you say, very loud, "Hey, how about that idiot coach! The way he's running his team is a joke. This guy is the worst I've ever seen. If his team really wants to win this game, they'll all come out of the locker room and dunk during warmups so we can throw the jerk out and the assistant would take over."

Don't go looking for "T"rouble.
 

I concur with your partners on this one..... It is the coach's lockerroom, as sad as his commentary is, as much as you want to call attention to this idiot's ranting, let it go. He is already "penalizing" the team by creating excuses for his inability to coach.

If he wants to carry this attitude into the second half, you can find ways to address his disrespect on the court in public view.
Depending on whether you care to work there again, you can submit a letter to the AD (as I have in the past) as to what you observed, but it sounds like your partners would not be supportive of this action.

So your partners wouldn't enforce this rule either...:(

10.1.3 SITUATION B:

Fixed it for ya.

Is this a long way of saying that this should be a flagrant technical? If so, I agree.

It's not rabbit ears when they're screaming at you.

It's not like they were hanging outside eavesdropping. The coach knew they were in there.

This all I need to know. Buh Bye!

I'd rather explain this T than explain why I didn't call it.

Thanks for all the comments, observations, and rules/casebook references. While I understand willieb's position that you don't go looking for "T"rouble, I still think we should have T'd this out-of-control coach. But I respected and listened to my much more experienced partners; both were good officials who were otherwise not reluctant to T-up deserving coaches. I called at this small town, Florida panhandle school several times over a 3 year period and never had any other similar or bad experiences...but boy, this one sure sticks with me.

It may simply have been a signal that his leash in the 2nd half was going to be very short if you know what I mean.

I've been told that that is a sure indication that the situation was not handled properly. You know it inside.