Game management - communication to head coach

[Adam]

Originally Posted by johnny1784

What verbal comments would you use to a head coach or player who makes senseless statements to us as officials? I would like your new/different/convincing feedback, humorous or professional, formed in quick short reply to respond to coach/player(s). The comments so irritating this year; "call it both ways", "three seconds in the key", "they are playing rough on my guys" and "you got to help your partner". I do not believe you should ignore the head coach especially if your pregame included giving coach/captain the opportunity to address us on a dead ball or time-out to discuss or present a question.

I haven't read the whole thread yet, but here are my initial reactions to your post.

First of all, don't do the part in red. Coaches may ask questions, but I'm not going to "discuss" plays with them. "Coach, if you have a question about a play, we'll try to answer it within the flow of the game." Now, when the coach says something like, "they're playing rough on my guys," you can ignore it or ask him if he has a question about a specific play.

"Call it both ways." I typically ignore this, as it goes nowhere good. The one time I addressed it, I simply made a point of looking at the scoreboard, which showed the foul count at 8-8. This doesn't always work, because your count won't always be close to even. You can, if you have a moment, ask him if he really means to accuse you of cheating. Tread carefully on this one, however.

"Three seconds...." I always ignore, unless he's making a habit of it. You have a few options. 1. Ignore. 2. Let him know that while you expect he's going to disagree on a few of your choices, you can't have him officiating from the bench like that. 3. Tell him that with all of the numbers being yelled out, you keep losing count and can't seem to get to three. (Tread carefully,and I'd really only use this in rec, or with a coach with whom I'd built a very good raport.)

"You've got to help your partner" is borderline T worthy, and will get one of three responses. 1. Ignore. 2. Warn. 3. T. In that order. Anything else either throws your partner under the bus or sends you crashing down to the coach's level.