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Tue Feb 29, 2000, 06:47pm
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On Sunday, I worked a season-ending rec league tournament. Five consecutive games of 8th grade girls. After four of the games, both coaches told my partner and me that we did a "great" or at least a "good" job and that they appreciated our work. In the other game, one of the coaches said the same thing, but the other coach told us we "sucked" and that it was the worst officiated game he had ever seen.
Guess what? His team lost by one point when my partner called a travel on his daughter with three seconds left that nullified what would probably have been the winning basket. She caught the ball in the high post, took at least two steps and then put the ball to the floor for her dribble. Not even a close call. Oh well. I guess you can't please everybody. 
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Wed Mar 01, 2000, 11:46am
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Mark don't feel bad---
I had a girls 8th grade game the other day. Team A was gfetting blown out and even had difficulty ggetting past the half court line. They really needed some work on their fundamentals. I made an out of bounds call in team B's favor and both coaches of Team A went ballistic. At the end of the game, Team A coach ran up to my partner and said in her inimitable boisterous manner "thank you - you did a GREAT JOB". She said nothing to me. So my partner was great but I sucked! My partner just laughed and told me not to let it get to me and that I did a great job myself.
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Wed Mar 01, 2000, 12:08pm
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When it comes to coaches opinion, I think my supervisor put it best when he said," if you are going to believe the coach that tells you, you did a great job, then you have to believe the coach that tells you, you did a bad job".
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Wed Mar 01, 2000, 02:53pm
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I have called the league this year to recognize the outstanding work of two officials in a game we lost in overtime, only to turn around and call back the next week to complain about an awful official that we had the very next week in a game we won. And I had reasons for my judgement that had nothing to do with whether we got the calls we wanted - I knew the one ref was awful based on seeing him in the game before ours. But my take on officiating is often different from that of many of the coaches I have dealt with in league play. If they win they are happy, if they lose they think the refs stink. Those opinions count for very little on either side.
I think that you listen to who you want to listen to you, but you need to be able to reflect on your own performance. I have to do that as a coach. I have three teams, one that went undefeated, one that won zero games, and one that went precisely .500. What kind of coach am I? I have to judge for myself and look for constructive criticism. If I stunk, in what way did I stink? If I was good, what did you like? Even if I did well, how can I improve? If you can't tell me those things, then your opinions aren't of much use to me.
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Wed Mar 01, 2000, 03:49pm
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Hawks Coach -
What level do you coach at? I've been on the other side of the court also as a coach of travel 8th grade CYO. What I tried to look for in a good ref was consistency, fairness and hustle. Refs blow calls too ....just like players make bad passes and coaches make run some plays that never work. I will say I've had better games .... but it seems that the games I'm not satisfied with my overall performance are in ragged games...those are tough to officiate.
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Wed Mar 01, 2000, 08:17pm
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quote: Coach, you hit the nail right on the head. As referees who officiate many more games than most coaches coach, we see the mistakes coaches make all the time. But we don't go over to them and tell them that. On Monday night, team A had a three point lead and the ball with under a minute left. Team B was in the penalty. There was no shot clock and team A requested and was granted a timeout. Anticipating that team A would hold the ball and team B would foul, I reminded my partner to watch for the intentional foul by B. Of course, team B did not foul, team A took a wild shot with 15 seconds to go, team B got the rebound, didn't ask for a timeout (they had two left), brought the ball into the frontcourt and dribbled until the clock ran out! Neither coach gave their team any instructions during play. If my partner and I would have officiated as poorly as both coaches coached at the end of this game, we never would have heard the end of it. Did we say anything to either coach? Nope. Not our job.
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Thu Mar 02, 2000, 12:15am
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quote: I coach 7th grade boys in a Select league and 5th girls and 7th boys rec ball. I have also coached many years of soccer and refed soccer as well. I look for the same types of things as you appear to - on top of the play, consistent, in charge of the floor (as need be - some games can run themselves better than others), and knowledge of the rules. With respect to the last, I do not hold them to a standard of being the resident advisor to this bulletin board, but the common stuff they should understand and get right. I also look for referees to work well as a team - it's a long game when the refs can't work and communicate with each other. For the select level, I look for a little more game control from the referees, since the games can get pretty physical and the refs need to let people play but keep things from getting out of hand. I also look for a more strict enforcement of the rules at the higher level. When I see a kid take two hops on one foot while making up her mind to pass in a lower level rec game, I am comfortable with the referees giving a little slack, as long as they are consistent in their approach and enforcing the rules at a level that matches the level of play. With the higher level play, I want the players to be held to a higher standard, because these are kids we are preparing for high school and beyond. The refs are just an additional teacher for the players. I can take the calls that go against us and teach alot in practice the next week. Its amazing how much more they believe me in practice when the ref has called them for travelling or reaching in on defense.
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Fri Mar 03, 2000, 03:25pm
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In response to 'Hawks Coach', did you find out how long the "bad" official you reported has been working? The 5th-8th grade rec, youth, cyo, and ymca leagues are where new officials earn their stripes (no pun intended). I have worked with partners that I felt were not good, until I remembered they were first or second year officials. It is not a period of development to knock, but to offer help.
Unfortunately this is also the level where new coaches are earning their stripes, and more friction with coaches occurs than is necessary. You can still help the official even though some, if not most, officials would be very skeptical of taking advice from a coach. It sounds like you have been around a the league a few years, I'm sure there are some good refs you have befriended along the way. You can use these officials to help the new guy out. You may be surprised how good that "bad" official can be with a few years and some mentoring under his belt.
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Fri Mar 03, 2000, 07:00pm
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To be clear, I believe that all refs need to be allowed to work at the basic levels to gain experience. The official I had problems with was working a select level game, which runs at a fast pace, can be highly physical, and involves a group of players that are very serious about their basketball. I firmly believe that we should have minimum standards of competence for officials at that level. Our rec leagues are a great place for folks to get experience, and I think that there are a number of opportunities for an official to gain experience and be evaluated prior to moving up. I will confess to ignorance regarding the ladder of progression for basketball officials, but in soccer you have to work up to the higher level games.
I believe that IAABO does the scheduling of refs for our select level games in this area, and we see different guys every time out. I am only in my third season of select basketball, and have had very little repetition, so I do not have the kind of individual repoire that might allow me to explore other avenues than speaking with the league. Furthermore, I don't know much about what the IAABO refs do to provide assistance to each other. As a coach, I am extremely hesitant to offer advice to officials. I have yet to receive advice from officials on coaching either, although I have no doubt that some of the better officials I have had could give me some good pointers. For officials, I prefer to deal with the league. For my recreational teams, I speak almost every week with our league administrator, and we always play in the same gym with the same officials/gym supervisors, etc. I discuss what they do well, and where they can improve - and the past two years have been 99% positive feedback. The administrator does a good job of fixing things without creating problems for officials or teams. For the select teams, the administrator deals with other assignors, and I do believe that there should be some minimum standards for officials for those games. If I see someone that I think is completely unsuited for that level, I will tell the league. It does nothing for me, because I will probably never see the guy again, but it may be of help to someone else.
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