Was I wrong

[Hawks Coach]

Originally posted by John Chladek
As a father/fan/coach, I think a word of advice to the PG was commendable. But to answer a question that wasn't asked, I think a ref should do one thing (quietly offer advice/teaching), OR the other (call the violation/foul), but NEVER both. If you call a violation, any explaining should be done to the coach. We had a situation earlier in the year in a girls HS F/S game where we were trying to foul at the end of a game. The ref didn't call the first 2 attempts, so one of our sophomores fouled hard. The ref called this one, and then lectured the girl that she could hurt someone playing like that. It took all my self control to not scream at him that if he would have called the first 2, she wouldn't have had to foul harder (I know this topic is covered in a different thread)! It took 2 weeks to get that girl back to the proper level of aggressiveness on the court.

Thanks John. Another good point on this. And remember, we coaches (if we are coaching correctly) know our players and how to communicate effectively with each of them. The message I send to this player may be totally different than that which the ref sends because I know that this player will benefit from hearing it said a certain way. The ref may wind up doing more harm then good by atempting to coach my player or correct them. Make the call and move on.