First Tuff Game
 

Today was my 20th game ever and I ran into a tuff game. Up until now I have had challenging games but nothing I could not handle. This one might have been a stretch.

Losing team lost by 23 points and during the game coach was pretty quiet at the end of the game as I was dressing to go home and sitting next to my partner he comes up to us and gives his unsoliciated commentary telling my partner you called a good game and that I was awful. My partner said nothing and I said thanks for feedback.

Admititly, I made some mistakes one of which I said there were 2 shots and it was 1 and 1...My partner did not correct me and it caused some confusion. Second issue and the one that seemed to piss off the coach he sez his guy went down hard with 1 minute left in the game and I was turning heading back down court so I did not see it and my partner said nothing.

Questions:

1) Should my partner said something to the complaining coach..run interference for me?

2) Is the coach's behavior appropriate?

3) Should I notify the assignor?


Any words of wisdom always appreciated :)

Absolutely. I would have stood between you two and said something like, "Coach, you have no business here. Move along."


Absolutely not. Happened to me earlier in my career too, and the V Officials stepped right in and escorted the coach out.

Certainly. His behavior is unwarranted and you, your assingor, and the league should go on record as not willing to tolerate this behavior.

Most importantly, don't let this get you down. After my incident, very early in my career, I seriously asked myself, do I want to do this? Do I have what it takes? For me, the answer was YES! I hope it is for you too!

And now, probably 700 games later, I am more mature and experienced, and, if I run into a coach like that again, I know just how to handle him - and I would protect my P too!

Keep at it and good luck!

Basically what grunewar said...

Don't let these ***hole coaches intimidate you after the game. Your partner should have had your back, but maybe your partner just didn't expect the coach to do what he did. I wouldn't hold it too much against it unless he let it go on too long.

Just keep at it...this kind of thing will happen to almost anyone at least once or twice in one's officiating career. Smile, thank the coach for his "expert" advice, tell your assignor/someone in charge, move on.

Spoke to Assignor and he does not seem to be surprised at all and said he is not worried about it. Plus he just gets game times from the league and not the level of play..To me if I was assignor I would want to know the level of games to match the game with right level of official :)

"Gee, coach - maybe you're right. I'll tell you what. Just to make up for my bad calls, we'll give you an extra 20 points. Oh wait - you still lose!" :cool: