An article in the local Newspaper
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/preps/..._molly11.shtml

The only reaction I have is the part where the idiot says you probably need to have coached or played to be a successful official.

Arrogance at its highest.

Why is it we never say that one needs to have been an official to be a successful coach? I think if all coaches were forced to officiate for a year we would have no problems out of many of them.

I also like how the one coach wants to get in the evaluation process. Once again, I have never been asked to evaluate a coach's performance. I will listen to an evaluation, but it had better be from someone who has considerable training AS AN OFFICIAL.

Rich

Everybody wants good officiating, but nobody really expects to get it. It's kinda like being sick and hoping you get good tasting medicine, chances are it ain't gonna happen. Just hope that the medicine doesn't make you any sicker than you already were.*


*the above is an example of self-deprecating humor

I like the last point. I have seen many good officials and many bad officials, but I can honestly say that I have seen very, very few biased officials. And they don't last very long.

I have gone so far as to invite a fan (one that I know) who makes the claim "all the refs hate my team" to an out-of-town game where he really doesn't care who wins. The transformation is increadable. You begin to hear things like "you guys really can referee" or, more likely "I wish we could get a good officiating job like that at home".

The thing that poeple don't understand is that we are the only 2 (or 3) people in the building that really could care less who wins.

Blackhawk

I like the line, "This may surprise you coach, but officials get more training than coaches!"

In some cases, we see players go on to be officials, and I believe having a knowledge of the game and its ins-and-outs can be an asset to an official. But the blanket statement the coach made is ludicrous. Officiating is more than just being familiar with the game. It's being a people-person, being able to mediate, split-second critical thinking under unbelievable pressure, concentration, poise, and a special brand of integrity coaches may never understand.

We'd like to think that, but I doubt that it's true. A lot of them would just gain the inside knowledge they need to crank up their abuse and complaining to the next level!

Having said that, I've had countless players and coaches tell me they could NEVER do what we do.

<i>"but white players get charges more than black players. It's a hard call, but a slow white guy gets the call more than an athletic black kid."</i>

Statistics to back that up or just a wild claim? Any chance that athletic kids try to block shots instead of taking a charge? Whoo boy..... that's just moronic. Good thing he's a coach, because that chip on his shoulder wouldn't fit into most of the rooms that schools give us to dress in.

Z

That perception is not any different than any other bias. If you always have white officials on games where both teams are racially different, you are going to have those assumtions about the calls. Not any different than officials living in a town or a state when other differences appear by geography. I do not see you calling it moronic if someone was to officiate there old HS or school in the town that they live. If they do not want to give off the impression of bias, but a more racially diverse crew on games with schools that have racial difference. That to me is a perfect way to squash that perception. Then all he would be left with is the officials themselves.

Peace

Great, quotas for officials?

Rut, that is ridiculous. Should we not send black officials to rural towns that have little minority population? How about women working boys' games -- should that not happen either? Why send 50-year-olds to work these games -- I mean, aren't they way older than the players?

WE are not racists. The coach, who is looking for bias at every turn, is the racist. He is the one (along with the Sharptons and the Jacksons) who is driving a stake between the races for his own personal gain. Woe is me and my team. Waaaaah.

I lived in Seattle and officiated at some of these schools. That said, the comments made by some of these coaches do not surprise me in the least.

Why would you and why would the P-I give these people ANY credibility?

The truth is, basketball is the hardest of all the sports to call. And (excepting some of the coaches that take the time to learn --like some of the ones ones on this board) the yahoos that patrol the sidelines, in general, have no idea what it takes to call a game or what a well-called game is.

Last night my partner and I worked a girls' varsity game where the following coach activity happened:

(1) I called a player control foul on a girl who drove baseline leading with her arm. Call it a pet peeve of mine. Home coach doesn't like call and asks where the charge is on a clear-as-day block on the other end. He was serious, I think.

(2) Partner calls a PC foul at the other end. Same coach tells him that she hasn't committed an offensive foul all season, as if that has some relevance. Assistant then says that she hadn't committed one in three years. Partner turns as he's going by and mentions that, "Yes she has. Right there," and keeps on heading down the court. I don't blame him for not being able to resist.

(3) Girl fouls out with 0:10 left in the game, which is a 20-point blowout. Head coach insists he gets 60 seconds to replace player. I reminded him it was thirty seconds and started the clock. He kept trying to argue the point (it's hard to argue when the other person doesn't argue back), until I reminded him that he was almost out of time. This is the same guy who sincerely expected a held ball when his player whacked an opponent across the arms on a drive and kept the shooter from putting the ball up on a drive.

I believe most coaches are sincere, but they also look through some very thick rose-colored, very biased glasses. That so-called journalists don't immediately pick up on that and then lend these coaches credibility through a daily as widespread as the P-I bothers me.

Rich

Good post,Rich. Officials are blackandwhite! That's all,and 'nuff said!

In all the years I have played, coached, and simply watched basketball, I have never seen a referee call a game a particular way due to race issues, regardless the color of the official or teams involved. I have friends who have claimed racism at various times. Sadly, I think it shows poorly on my friends rather than the officials.

Now, having said all that, a coach is a fool if he doesn't point out to his players an official who has a "pet peeve", as one of the other posters mentioned. We regularly have an official who is a stickler for FT lane violations. We've had another ref who is very tight with travel calls. We tell players not to make violations, but to be especially careful with particular referees, with particular situations. Same concept as playing baseball with umpires who have "different" strike zones.

Good points. we have an official in one of our leagues that calls a lot of fouls in the post area, but only if you allow a post player to catch and turn. If you are working hard to deny the entry, he almost never calls anything. He has done it all season, and we pointed it out to our players before the very first game we played.

On Saturday, we had two post players foul out, and both complained about phantom fouls. At practice yesterday, I pointed out to them that we had discussed this all year. I then asked them could they have done anything to keep from getting the foul calls, and they both knew that denying the post entry was the answer.

Now granted, I always want us to deny entry, but this guys calls make it doubly important, and we almost lost a game by having my best two post players on the bench for the last couple of minutes. I think they learned a valuable lesson, and hopefully they will take it to heart this weekend.

Oh baloney. If you're going to play the race card, you'd better have some stats to back it up rather than to just throw out some silly claim that has absolutely no basis in fact.

Z

Two points that Floyd makes jump out at me. "a slow white guy gets the call more than an athletic black kid." What are we supposed to do with the athletic white kids and the slow black kids? How do we treat them? No different than the slow white kid and the athletic black kid. When it comes to calling a game, the only color that matters is the color of the uniforms.

"Things like the carry, the jump-stop travel, the hand check -- those slow down the athletic player," Floyd said. Those slow down every player. Why? Because they are violations of the rule and should be penalized accordingly.

One thing that makes me chuckle is when they talk about the amount of training, or lack thereof, officials receive. Officials in Seattle "attend a weekly two-hour session for eight to 10 weeks." That's 16-20 more hours of training than officials in Idaho receive. I'd feel much better about working with a first-year official I've never worked with if I knew they've had at least 16 hours of training under their belt.