Questioning my T

[Smitty]

This has gotten a little irrelevant. We're not talking about college coaches/referees. We're talking about high school sub-varsity coaches and referees. There's a reason why many coaches and referees are working at the sub-varsity level. Some are "up and comers" and will be at the varsity level very soon. And some are "never gonna get there" and just will never get the nuances of the job. It's the "never gonna get there" folks that generally create the problems night after night with communication techniques, understanding of the rules and how to apply them, and game management. This is a generalization, but at the sub-varsity level, you just never know what you're gonna get till you start the game. And I think it can get ugly fast if you have an imbalance either way with a good coach and a bad official or vice versa. That's just the nature of the beast.

Communication with coaches has always been a difficult thing for me to learn - probably the most difficult thing. I do not have the charisma that many other people have to be able to communicate easily under difficult situations. It is something I still work on, but I have gotten so much better. Like anything else it is just something you have to work on and learn from your failures. And working those sub-varsity games is the very best place to work on those skills.

[CMHCoachNRef]

Originally Posted by Smitty

This has gotten a little irrelevant. We're not talking about college coaches/referees. We're talking about high school sub-varsity coaches and referees. There's a reason why many coaches and referees are working at the sub-varsity level. Some are "up and comers" and will be at the varsity level very soon. And some are "never gonna get there" and just will never get the nuances of the job. It's the "never gonna get there" folks that generally create the problems night after night with communication techniques, understanding of the rules and how to apply them, and game management. This is a generalization, but at the sub-varsity level, you just never know what you're gonna get till you start the game. And I think it can get ugly fast if you have an imbalance either way with a good coach and a bad official or vice versa. That's just the nature of the beast.

Communication with coaches has always been a difficult thing for me to learn - probably the most difficult thing. I do not have the charisma that many other people have to be able to communicate easily under difficult situations. It is something I still work on, but I have gotten so much better. Like anything else it is just something you have to work on and learn from your failures. And working those sub-varsity games is the very best place to work on those skills.

Smitty,
I agree. I only bring up the college coaches' pay vs. referees' pay to illustrate that some folks recognize that coaching is NOT an easy job.

Your observation concerning sub-varsity games is dead on for both referees and coaches. Some of the worst scenarios are not necessarily with a "good" member of one community and a "bad" one in the other as much as when BOTH fit into the "bad" category. Usually, a good coach can recognize a "bad" referee within the first couple minutes of a game. The difference between the "good" coach and the "bad" coach is that the good coach recognizes what he has and adjusts his game plan accordingly (no handchecks being called tonight, well, let's step up the defensive pressure) while the "bad" coach will continue to yell at the "bad" referee convinced that by pointing out each mistake a referee makes during the game, the referee will somehow become a great referee by game's end. Similarly, the "good" referee recognizes the "bad" coach and ignores the coach to the extent possible trying to avoid giving the coach the chance to do something stupid.

Communications is difficult for everyone when they first start out -- everyone meaning referees AND coaches. Communicating with referees in an appropriate way takes some level of experience -- especially when, as a coach, you are pumped up for the game. Similarly, communicating with coaches -- many of whom don't like you because of your clothing -- takes experience as well.