How to handle an assistant coach.
 

MTD, Jr., and I had a girls' Jr. H.S. doubleheader (7th grade game followed by the 8th grade game) last night.

Late in the third quarter V1 fouled H1 in the act of shooting, and MTD, Jr., made the call from the T. He reported the foul while I observed the players and made the switch from old L to new T. Before we could start shooting the free throws, V-HC moved out of her coaching box to a spot in front of the Table and started complaining to me about the officaiting (so what else is new, :D). I politely told her that she had to return to her coaching box and then moved into my T position for the free throws. Immediately her assistant coach yelled: "She is in her coaching box." I gave MTD, Jr., the stop sign and moved toward the division line and told V-HC that we did not want to hear anymore from her assistant coach. V-HC immediately replied: "That was me talking." To which I replied: "Coach, I know it was your assistant coach because she referred to you in the third person."

After the game, the H-AD, who is also the 8th grade English teacher, runs the clock for both games, came into the dressing room with water and told us that he loved my reference to the assistant coach talking about the head coach in the third person.

MTD, Sr.

I also love when the yell about a call and when you look at or address them they say they were talking to themselves. You can talk to yourself...just do it so I can't hear it!

Doesn't the calling official stay at the table? Or do you guys do it differently locally?

Not when you're using MOMM (Modified Old Man mechanics) which is a technique allowed when you get AARP membership:)

We switched on a shooting foul.

MTD, Sr.

That's ZM point, though asked incorrectly. 2-man mechanics the calling official on shooting fouls should be the trail on the free throws.

Again, this is not NFHS mechanics. If the T calls a shooting foul, the T stays the trail tableside. This was changed last season. I guess the question is whether your state or association(s) went along with this change.

IAABO has not made this change. I don't know if Ohio is an IAABO state or not.

Too funny, I tried "Something" like that last nite. As we played (and beat the 3rd ranked team in the sate I might add) my wife was losing her voice. She was yelling for a TO but the official couldn't hear her. Since I actually do a GREAT imitation of her thick southern accent, I yelled for a TO and actually got the officials attention. He granted the TO then realized it was I who he heard ask for the TO and smiled. He came over for the "first horn" signal and told me my imitation was spot on!

I talked to a fellow official this weekend. During a recent contest featuring 2 ranked teams, he and his partner were so tired of the coaches in their ear after each shooting foul, they went back to the old mechanic of going opposite the table.

Too bad they didn't just address the behavior rather than run from it.

+2413

Heh. Last night we had one of the worst games I've had in a long time. 15 fouls in the first quarter, with the home team picking up their 10th with a minute left in the first quarter. In the end, I couldn't tell you what the losing coach was saying because I stopped paying any attention to him.

Personally, I prefer being across during free throws, but it's not something I really care about one way or the other.

haha, excellent.

but be careful--impersonating's a slippery slope. you don't want to be sitting on the bench for a playoff game looking like this: :eek:

http://musingsonlifelawandgender.typ...on/blksuit.jpg

Ohio is not an "IAABO state," though we have boards here. OHSAA uses approved NFHS mechanics.

I have had the coaches involved and I can certainly understand why they did what they did. While both coaches are a handful, they generally never do anything to cross the line.

I've borrowed the mantra of other officials in addressing bad behavior by using the Three Ps. Personal, Profane and Persistent.

I'm not going to allow a coach to continually whine, even if each individual comment is not over the line. Too much and they will eventually peg the ABS meter.

I actually like being table-side. Other than one game (which happened to be last Friday), I prefer to have a coach 'talk' to me rather than have him 'yell' across.

As Welpe indicated, the continual banter needs to be addressed.
2nd or 3rd time: "Coach, if you have a question about that play, I'll answer it; but the commentary isn't doing either of us any good."

If he follows that up by asking questions on every play, deal with that, too. If the coach's behavior prevents you from being able to follow proper mechanics, I'd prefer to deal with it rather than changing the mechanics.

That said, we don't do the table side thing here in two-man, even though I would prefer it. I also would prefer to be able to have a quiet word with the coach.

= 10

I'm starting to think it encourages a running dialogue. Sure, the a$$hats will yell across once in a while, but the more reasonable coaches will see the official across and figure it's not worth it -- whereas tableside, they'll get in a quiet shot here and there.

+1 The further away the better once a call has been explained!!

If they never cross the line then why avoid them? If they were coaches that cross the line then that is easily addressed using Rule 10.

One Tactic That Worked Recently
 

Coach, known for riding the refs the entire game, early in the second half, again to me in transition: "C'mon, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah............."
Me, not wanting to be a smartaleck, but getting tired of it: "Coach, your comments have been so frequent, I just want you to know I stopped listening midway last quarter."
Coach: Off my back the rest of the game.

Don't know if it will work the next time, but I would try it again under the same non-T, every-time-down-the-court circumstances.

I find it provides an opportunity to address concerns before they feel the need to devolve into running commentary.

I can also stop the running commentary easily with a comment if I'm there.

1) As MByron correctly stated, Ohio is not an IAABO state. There is one IAABO Board in Ohio and I am a member of it.

2) NFHS Mechanics state that the calling official should stay Table Side in this scenario. But that does not prevent the officials from switching if it is a good idea to keep the calling official away from the coaches of a particular team. Having said that, I think that it was a stupid mechanic adopted by Mary Struckhoff because she thinks that high school basketball is the same as NCAA Division I and WNBA basketball where the Head Coaches are familiar with the officials that officiate their games and can be expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner 99.999% of the time; this cannot be said for the vast majority of Jr. H.S and H.S. Head Coaches. And in our game if I had been made the call from the T, we still would have switched.

3) And there has always been a reason for switching after fouls: The idea of switching is to keep the officials from seeing the teams in the same end of the court, i.e., one official always seeing Team A on offense and Team B on defense and vice versa. Mary Struckhoff is clueless on that point among others in my opinion.

4) MByron is correct when he states that the OhioHSAA 'uses' NFHS Mechanics. But the OhioHSAA cannot really make that claim, because even though the Chairman of the NFHS Basketball Rules Committee is an Assistant Commissioner of the OhioHSAA, the OhioHSAA did not adopt the Team Control Foul signal because it is, according to the OhioHSAA confusing to the players, coaches, scorers, and fans. So it can be said that the OhioHSAA is not a 100% believer in using NFHS Mechanics.

MTD, Sr.

Exactly. Because mechanically speaking there is really no reason to be close enough to a coach and/or facing a coach anyway during free throws for him to be able to make a running commentary, no matter system we are working.

We all know when we've made a call that might need a brief explanation. Report the foul, quickly tell the coach what you need to tell him, and then get to your spot. Whether you're working 2-man, 3-man, going opposite, or staying tableside.

In 2-man, I never get close enough for a coach to talk to me during free throws.

I have to disagree on this point. When the change first came down, I and many others in my association were not happy about it at all. However after two seasons working with this mechanic, I have found that MOST coaches are much more willing to have a reasonable conversation with officials when we are table side than opposite table. There are always a few bad apples out there, but for the most part I feel that the change has been positive. Although maybe that has more to do with us being laid back Californians than anything else :D

And using the PC signal for team control fouls still confuses the coaches. Just Saturday I called a foul in the key on A and gave the PC signal like a good boy and got an earful from the coach on how I could call a foul when the dribbler was on the other side of the court, five feet from my partner. I don't think he ever understood it wasn't on the dribbler.

Eastshire:

Thanks for proving my point. I have stuck with the NFHS Mechnic for a TCF and I really do not care what the people in Columbus think. :D

MTD, Sr.

So...there were three coaches on the bench? :p

Ricky ???
 

Was the assistant coach Ricky Henderson?

Mark, obviously you and JRut have a lot more in common than you let on... :D

No. The HC was Elmo. Elmo always speaks of Elmo in the third person. ;)

The Oil Can.

I used to love Oil Can. He was entertaining for sure.

Peace