What should happen?
 

Last night, after working a great double OT thriller (girls varsity) on my way home my cell phone rings. It is an area coach. Now Calls from coaches aren't too uncommon when they have rule interpreter questions but this one caught me off guard. Coach tells me that he got T'd up and was ok with that. He said he deserved it but it was what followed that what he was calling about. He was kneeling by the bench when he got T'd after the official gave him the T. The official came over and patted him on the head to tell him to sit down. THis made the coach furious. His comment was what gives the right for the official to touch me in any way. I agreed that the official shouldn't have touched him. I calmed him down to the best of my ability. His statement was if I would put my hands on an official I would be arrested or charged. But in this case it seems that really nothing will happen other than the official being told that a mistake was made. Do any of you have anything in place of what should or does happen if an official makes a mistake of this magnitude?

Best thing for you to do in that situation is to listen to the story, tell the coach it sounds pretty serious, and ask him to call you back the next day. He'll have cooled off by then, and you'll have a better sense of what the next step should be.

If the coach is still that upset, he could write a report to the state and let the state sanction the official.

Coach, the cell call is breaking up, can I call you later.

I'm assuming your the rules interpreter. If you have a commissioner or supervisor then you should refer the coach to him/her. Otherwise the coach should address it to his AD and/or state association.

As a rules interpreter I don't think you're in a position to provide the coach the type of relief he is looking for.

Hasn't anybody ever "walked" a coach back to the box perhaps with a hand on the lower back (not a push!)? Hasn't anybody been near a coach and he might touch you on the elbow as he asks a question, etc? This whole idea about "what gives him a right to touch me!?!?!?!" is obviously fueled by the coach being overly emotional following a tough game IMO....granted as a general rule, don't touch anybody on the floor, but my point is I agree with other posters here, let the guy cool off, talk to him the next day and see if he still feels the same way. To me it isn't the "touching" that is the big problem here, but patting somebody on the head is pretty degrading - that is probably what peeved him more than anything...

Well put. I tend to agree that the pat on the head was probably a bit demeaning to him, and certainly uncalled for. In either case, his best bet should've been to let his AD handle it with the league assignor, or perhaps a call to the state atletic board.

Around here touching coaches/players is not approved & patting the HC (who just lost his box) on the head is highly disrespectful, IMO.

Plus if we stick a coach, our partner informs them that they have lost that privelige. It looks bad for the same official to "stick & sit" the coach.

Another excellent point, if you T a coach report the T and get the heck out of there and you avoid all of this! Under no circumstances would I stick around in that situation and tell him anything let alone touch him - he knows what he got popped for there is nothing to stay and explain to him...

Did the ref hurt his hand when he patted such a sharply pointed object? :p

Works Every Time ...
 

And crunch up some paper near the microphone at the same time.