A ten second five second count?
 

Spring league JV game. A1 scores. B1 goes to take the ball for the inbound. I'm counting. After about three seconds, B2 jumps OOB on the endline and B1 passes to him. He looks to inbound but his teammates are all covered. Two seconds goes by and I blow my whistle for the violation. I signal a five second violation and Coach B yells, "That's not right. They each get five seconds." I reply, "Unless they changed the rules last night while I was sleeping, that's not the case, coach."

After the game (which team A won by about 25) when I was at the table getting things set up for the next game, Coach B came over and asked me the one question that almost makes me puke, "Are you sure?" My reply was "What do you think, coach - we just make this up as we go along?"

He just looked at me for about five seconds then turned around and left.

There, fixed it for you! ;)

Oh sure he gets his own five second count. Unless he was within 5 feet of you and had a ball this seems unnecessary.

+1

I'm using that one Padgett!

Mark:

That is how I have been officiating my whole career, :D.

MTD, Sr.

You should have asked him if the original thrower would be entitled to a new five seconds if the second player passed the ball back to him while he was still standing OOB. Then followed that up by inquiring what the coach thought should happen if these two players decided to pass the ball back and forth between just themselves for the remainder of the quarter/half/game. :D

I remember a "varsity" game about 6 years ago where the visiting team was a private school from Illinois. After a disqualifying foul, I started the 30 second (as it was then) clock and the coach spent 30 seconds arguing with me that he got a minute to make the sub.

When the 30 seconds expired, I whacked him, mid-sentence.

Are you trying to make his head explode?

And if his response is something like "Why not? After watching you officiate, it looks like you make up a helluva lot of calls as you go along", you now can't do a damn thing about it imo. Your smart-azz response leave you open for a counter-response...a response that you might not like. It's kinda tough to nail somebody for doing the exact same thing that you did.

Maybe you can get away with stuff like this in low-level rec league games with daddy-coaches, but I'd be awful careful of trying it at any higher levels. And if you do, you'd better know your audience.

Again, jmo....

So what? If he comes back with something he'll get something back even better. Any coach who gets in a "smarta$$ remark" contest with me is going to come out in second place.

Agreed. Keep yourself amused by keeping such comments in your head. The situation is better served with a respectful explanation than a comeback. You'll be better appreciated for it, too.

Besides, since this coach was operating on a rules myth, it's likely he's been teaching his kids this same myth, and he may have developed a strategy around it. ("If Johnny can't get the ball in-bounds to you, get out of bounds. You'll have five seconds, too.") We've all had moments where we were dead wrong about a rule myth. It's better to coax someone out of the myth than to yank them.

When a coach asks me if I'm sure, I look at them like I look at my 10 year old, and speak softly (as I would speak to my daughter), "Yes, Coach, I'm sure."

My daughter asks me that question all the time (when she's not verifying what I said with her mother), so I've got practice.

So, how often does her mother agree with you?

:D

Examples, please, of the times you were wrong. The rule myth I run into the most is when my partner tells players they must stand behind the division line during the shooting of technical fouls. And, with the amount of technicals I call, that happens a lot. ;)

I really dislike when we do that, it clearly puts one team at a disadvantage!