Dealing with coaches

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by bbcoach7

I hope the officials I sometimes compliment see me as being sincere. Maybe I should stop doing this. I've actually had maybe 2-3 referees compliment me after a game over the years. It's always the same general remark, "You have a good team there Coach."

I've been on both sides of this. When I was coaching middle school basketball, I occasionally had an official compliment my coaching. I've also had coaches compliment me on my officiating. But now it's time for me to tell you all a story. Are you all comfy?

When I was a junior varsity official I stayed to watch a rather intense varsity game following mine. Team A had just won the close game, with both coaches really "working" the varsity guys. The three of us, the two varsity officials, and me, went to the dressing room after the final horn. We sat there for a few minutes discussing the intensity of this game, when a knock came at the door. The Team A coach stuck his head in the door and said, "Nice job guys". One of the varsity officials, the one who took most of the abuse during the game, replied to the coach, "Would you have said that if you had lost?". It took both me, and the other varsity official, to pull these two apart to keep them from killing each other. Was the varsity official unprofessional in his reply? Yes, of course. But the coach should have stayed away from the dressing room.

And they lived happily ever after. The end.