Write unsportsmanship warning in book

[BktBallRef]

Originally Posted by RookieDude

We were having some refreshments, after the Saturday night games, at a local watering hole...and something came up that I said I would put to the experts here.

We got a transfer from a pretty big association on the other side of the state.
He's done some small college stuff, and seems to be a very good H.S. official with good judgment/mechanics/and rule knowledge.

He mentioned that when he gets a coach that is being "frisky"...one of the tools he has used is to verbally warn the coach about his unsportsmanlike attitude...and the official then tells the scorekeeper to write the warning in the book.

Is this a "tool" that is used in your neck of the woods...actually writing the warning in the book?

FWIW...I told him I could see that working for him...but, really didn't see any NFHS backing for it.

Maybe we don't need there backing for everything....or maybe there is an old interp that says we can use this tool...after further review, it seems that I remember some kind of verbal warning written in the book in the past.

We've been doing it for three years. If we give a coach the stop sign with a "Coach, I've heard enough," or whatever, you formalize the warning by having the scorer note the warning and time in the scorebook. I would also inform both partners.

It serves a two fold purpose.

1- More times than not, we don't end up having to T the guy.

2- If we do, and the coach calls the assignor the next day to complain, the first thing the assignor will say is "Coach, do you have your scorebook with you?"

I was skeptical at first but it's worked very well.

Of course, there are still things that are going to get a T with or without a warning. That's not taken away from us.