Speaking to a coach

[Tio]

I think communicating with coaches is among the hardest aspects of officiating to grasp let alone master.

I have a couple nuggets of advice based on your situation:

1. We (officials) do not choose what to call... we call what we see occur in the game. We referee all players to the same standard regardless of height, position, or skill level (insert the NBA joke here). So when you mention no advantage gained to the coach, you cannot win.

2. At lower levels, you will have less experienced coaches that will whine for calls like 3 seconds (much like unknowledgeable fans do). I would use it as an opportunity to communicate with the coach. You never know, he could be taking over the varsity team in the near future. You can gain rapport & credibility with him that can start the all-important trust process.

[JRutledge]

There was way too much conversation about a violation IMO. Even if you didn't call if for that reason, doubt I would have said that much about why I did not call a violation. Even on a foul I am only going to say so much. You will never win with a coach that has a bias to their team and if you called that against their team they would find a reason to not have you call that. Leave the conversations for the bigger things in the game, not a 3 second call made or missed.

Peace