For every coach that is a jerk there are three more out there who will actually give you a nod after a game they've lost, if they feel you've done a good job. Unfortunately, the jerks seem to have a more lasting effect on our psyche.

Anyway, where I come from coaches have no official input into who does which games. Of course, most Assignors will unofficially seek input from coaches from time to time, so when the time comes for Assc's to pick officials for playoffs and the Championship Tournaments.

It blows me away that in so many U.S. States, it's the AD's and coaches that seem to do a lot of the assigning.

Was every coach in every game ejected to-night?

I rest my case.

I agree with J.R. You were "taken to task" for the blanket statement that ....coaches are idiots and jerks. You know from reading the posts from the coaches that frequent here, this statement simply isn't true. Some of them are, maybe even most of them, but not all. My association has about a dozen varsity officials (male & female) that are "idiots and jerks", but they are a definite minority.

One of our coaches that was really hard on officials is a D1 men's official himself. He is very competitive (and quite a good coach) and also has a standard of officiating that will never be met in girls ball HS and below - you are dealing with a different group of officials there than in NCAA.

But even his understanding of the game and of the nature of the job does not make him any easier on officials (though I believe he has gotten much better in the past year or so). This means that coaches can be jerks, officials can be jerks, and officials can be jerks as coaches. It really is an individual thing.

I will gladly amend my rule to read that the "vast majority of coaches are idiots and jerks." I have learned a long time ago that coaches are not the friends of officials. Coaches have a different agenda that officials do. Coaches care who wins and loses and offficials do NOT care who wins and loses. Officiate in areas where the coaches have complete control over who officiates and who does not officiate and one will see how crazy coaches are and how poor the overall quality of officiating is because officials worry only about getting games and votes for tournament time. This is the case in NW Ohio and SE Michigan. I rest my case.

Mark...

I think you should ammend your post to read that the "vast majority of coaches in SE Michigan and NW Ohio are jerks" if that is where you work.

I average about 350 to 400 basketball games a year. Not only do I officiate H.S. games in those two areas I officate in youth tournaments in Ohio, Michigan, Connecticut, North Carolina and AAU and YBOA Nationals in Florida. Over the course of a year I see just about every type of coach possible. I am not saying that there are not some nice coaches out there. But too many of them are not nice.

Personally,Mark,I usually think that a coach is OK until they actually prove otherwise.I've never believed in going into a game with any preconceptions.

Jurassic..

I feel the same way about the officials that do our games. They are good in my book 'till they prove otherwise.

MTD
I am truly sorry for you if your experience everywhere is that coaches are generally bad. Coaches are all biased - we are supposed to be and freely admit it. Every coach, myself included, will dispute some calls, though I have many games where I have nothing that I feel needs to be contested. And we are not there to be your friends, we're there to coach a game with the intent of winning that game. That is our purpose, that and teaching a few lessons to our players along the way.

That said, I think it is a personal issue for you if you really find the majority of coaches to be difficult everywhere you go. I coach a travelling team, see lots of basketball on this coast, and that is NOT my experience. I also grew up in Illinois and have watched coaches there for years, continue to see games there every couple of years, and don't see a serious problem.

Bottom line - your blanket indictment of coaches (later modified to a near blanket indictment of coaches) tells me more about you than about the coaches in the games you ref. And I feel for you and those coaches, because your lack of respect for coaches can only have a negative impact on the games you ref. We are not supposed to be friends, we are not supposed to agree on everything, but we are not supposed to be adversaries either. At times you will find that you are at odds with a coach because of extreme behavior on his/her part. But if you find such situations occur in the majority of your games, you have some serious issues. And they are your issues, not the coaches' issues.

On NCAAREF's initial post
 

My thoughts on coaches that act in the manner that this coach did is that such coaches are idiots. They are so wrapped up in their desire to win that they ignore what you actually accomplished. If you are on top of your game, I want you in every one of my games. I don't care about one call nearly as much as how you did in the game as a whole.

If you can handle a tense, close game, and handle it well, I want you in any major contest we have so that I can be sure my players will have the best chance to decide the game themselves. By blackballing you, I could get handed a pair of officials that may have handed me a game earlier in the year with bad calls, and now could take it away if the calls go the other way. I have never beieved that HS refs are biased toward one program or another, so just give me the best I can get and lets lace up and play.