Past History with a Coach

[Camron Rust]

I've essentially has this happen twice in the last couple of years.

In the first case, I had a coach basically chase us from the court at the end (reported to the assignor rather than coming back out to issue a T). Next season, I had them on the road in a first round playoff game. They were a big underdog. The coach, at the pregame coaches meeting, gave me the biggest cold shoulder I've ever seen. He wouldn't even look at me. I expect it may be a long night. The game starts. A couple calls go his way. His team is shooting like the basket it 5' in diameter while the other team isn't. Things are going well for his team. By the end of Q1 he drops the "I'm not saying a word to you" act. The game goes smoothly and he is just fine. Moral...some coach's frustrations with you can be amplified by their frustration with how their team is playing. Just call the game and see what happens.

In the 2nd case, the first situation was in a summer league game where most of the coaches are just dads and sometimes assistants or jv coaches. The coach was being a fool and ended up getting tossed. He lies to another official at he facility in order to get my name. He lies to my assignor about what happened...not just embellished, but lies. He thinks I'm some rookie. I had never seen him before and didn't know he was a HS coach. I find out that he has a reputation in his area of being difficult. I then see him at a referee camp (combined with a HS tourney) later that summer where I'm an evaluator. He was a bit surprised at that. Next winter, I'm working the state championships and I have his team in the state quarter-finals. I know he can be trouble but I treat him the same as any other coach. He is cordial and doesn't say much of anything in the game...and they lose. He knew I'd have no problem dealing with his antic. In his next game in the consolation round, he gets T'd...par for the course...and probably deserved another. Moral of this story...when you properly deal with them when they do cross the line, they remember that and will usually behave in the future.