What high school coaches want

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Pantherdreams

SO what would you do if you had contact at one end with no foul called and the pg powered through the (reach/hold/push off) and advances the ball. But the PG then applies similar pressure and contact to the less athletic player on the return trip and it drags them to the floor.

All actions and contact are not = .

I think you are taking what (at face value) is pretty sound advice and over-analyzing it.

[just another ref]

Originally Posted by OKREF

Last summer at a camp I attended this was told to us.

If you have contact and a foul on one end, then the next trip on the other end if you have contact that is equal to or greater than what was just called you need to have a foul.

Conversely

If you have contact and no foul called, then the next trip, if you have contact that is equal to or less than what was just passed on you need to pass on it.

Consistency among the crew was his point.

All this is a theory, and a good one, but that's all it is. You give this to the wrong coach, and all you have is more food for argument.

"C'mon, ref, that contact was equal to or greater than what you just called on us!!"

"No, coach, it wasn't even close."

Consistency is a by-product of good officiating, not a building block.

A pitch on the outside corner is a strike. The next pitch, also on the outside corner, is also a strike, because it was on the outside corner, not because it was in any way similar to the last pitch. The next pitch is a micro-inch further outside, still very similar, but it is a ball.

[icallfouls]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

I agree with all but one of them.
You can talk to a coach who is GETTING EXCITED AND STARTING TO GET out of control. For a coach who is out of control, you need to penalize the poor behavior.

There is a difference between GETTING EXCITED / STARTING TO GET out of control and a coach that is out of control.

As officials we need to be aware of what has elevated the level of excitement and address the coach quickly so that they do not cross the line. We have to understand the investment that coaches have in their teams and allow them a certain amount of emotion.

If we ignore a coach who has become frustrated and is more excited as a result, we need to use all the tools available to give the coach a chance to regain their composure.

Of course there are going to be situations when we will have to penalize immediately, but officials that instantly jump into the penalty faze are just using their hammer because they have one.

[Bad Zebra]

Here's what I read:

Coaches want an experienced crew, or at least one experienced guy. I want somebody I've seen before..preferably one I can work.
Coaches don't want strangers officiating a big game. See above.
Coaches want sectional officials to have worked one of their games during the season. ...and again.
Coaches think sectional games are played and officiated differently. Uh, yeah. Hopefully better on both accounts...it is the playoffs.
There is a better way to ref than just blow the whistle. You should have to take some crap from us...we pay you.
Crews are better for post-season games (currently the assignments are random). See above.
The more you talk the better ref you are. The more you talk TO US the better ref you are.
Gotta protect the shooter. When my guy is shooting.
Be aware of previous games that may have been officiated differently, the goal is consistency between games/officials. Don't call travels on me if the last guy didn't. Doesn't matter if my player is traveling or not.
Gotta like kids. You should be willing to take some crap from one or two knuckleheads I have on my team.
The game is about adjustment. Officials need to anticipate and stay ahead of the curve. If it's against me, you obviously were in poor position to make that call.
If a coach is out of control, talk to him. You need to take a lot of $h1T before whacking me.
If you made a mistake, admit it and move on. You get ONE pass here, then I'm scratching you.
Make sure to give equal opportunity to talk to officials. I want to abuse ALL three of you equally. Please rotate so I can chew on you too
Consistency is the key -- watch back-to-back calls. Unless BOTH go against me.
Be on time to the game and get your contracts in on time. Yet snafus in getting YOU paid are out of my control.
Consistency in calls can be dependent on rotations and mechanics. If the foul count is uneven, your rotations and mechanics are the cause.
Coaches want officials to have good positioning. You need to be near me when you make a call so I can make sure you understand why that was a bad call.

Which of these do you guys agree/disagree with?

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by seanwestref

...
If a coach is out of control, talk to him. If you made a mistake, admit it and move on.
...?

Really, talk to him? Why?

[just another ref]

Originally Posted by seanwestref

Be aware of previous games that may have been officiated differently, the goal is consistency between games/officials.

I just noticed this one. How can I know how the previous game was officiated? And, it may have been a train wreck from start to finish so the last thing anybody wants is to be consistent with that.

[OKREF]

Originally Posted by just another ref

I just noticed this one. How can I know how the previous game was officiated? And, it may have been a train wreck from start to finish so the last thing anybody wants is to be consistent with that.

Happens all the time. If we hold a coach accountable and the guys in the games before us don't, who is the bad guy? Coach say they didn't call that last week. We are the bad guys.

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by just another ref

I just noticed this one. How can I know how the previous game was officiated? And, it may have been a train wreck from start to finish so the last thing anybody wants is to be consistent with that.

This presents a problem most commonly in this scenerio:

Tuesday night game features a crew of three avid ball-watchers. Off-ball fouls abound and are not called--no one sees them. Leads, focused on the dribblers out top, have no clue whether the defenders on the drives had LGP, so they default to "blocks", doing those funky "fists-to-the-hips-spasmotic-chicken-dances" to sell them, regardless the charges that took place. Coaches realize what they have, so they just resort to coaching through it. Then . . .

Friday night game features a crew diligent to observe PCA principles and make their calls/no calls accordingly. Like situations on one end lead to similar calls on the other end. Illegal off-ball antics yield deserving penalties. Coaches, realizing they have a completely different set of expectations before them, wonder aloud, "What is it with these guys? Why can't these crews be more consistent from game to game?"

And I don't blame 'em. But it ain't the Friday crew's fault.

As the observer of the Tuesday game who is now on the crew of the Friday game, I can't help the frustration the coaches are gonna feel. And regarding this I truly do sympathize. But it's not going to change our Friday crew's diligence. It will, however, remind me all-the-more that all the assigning pool of officials as a group got a lot more work to do.

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by Bad Zebra

Here's what I read:

Coaches want an experienced crew, or at least one experienced guy. I want somebody I've seen before..preferably one I can work.
Coaches don't want strangers officiating a big game. See above.
Coaches want sectional officials to have worked one of their games during the season. ...and again.
Coaches think sectional games are played and officiated differently. Uh, yeah. Hopefully better on both accounts...it is the playoffs.
There is a better way to ref than just blow the whistle. You should have to take some crap from us...we pay you.
Crews are better for post-season games (currently the assignments are random). See above.
The more you talk the better ref you are. The more you talk TO US the better ref you are.
Gotta protect the shooter. When my guy is shooting.
Be aware of previous games that may have been officiated differently, the goal is consistency between games/officials. Don't call travels on me if the last guy didn't. Doesn't matter if my player is traveling or not.
Gotta like kids. You should be willing to take some crap from one or two knuckleheads I have on my team.
The game is about adjustment. Officials need to anticipate and stay ahead of the curve. If it's against me, you obviously were in poor position to make that call.
If a coach is out of control, talk to him. You need to take a lot of $h1T before whacking me.
If you made a mistake, admit it and move on. You get ONE pass here, then I'm scratching you.
Make sure to give equal opportunity to talk to officials. I want to abuse ALL three of you equally. Please rotate so I can chew on you too
Consistency is the key -- watch back-to-back calls. Unless BOTH go against me.
Be on time to the game and get your contracts in on time. Yet snafus in getting YOU paid are out of my control.
Consistency in calls can be dependent on rotations and mechanics. If the foul count is uneven, your rotations and mechanics are the cause.
Coaches want officials to have good positioning. You need to be near me when you make a call so I can make sure you understand why that was a bad call.

THIS response to the original inquiry is both precious and accurate.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by seanwestref

Coaches want sectional officials to have worked one of their games during the season.

Coaches "vote" officials into our state tournament, and usually do a very good job selecting high quality officials.

We have a few local geographic area IAABO boards ("little corners") here in Connecticut. During the regular season, the local board will cover all home games, for all high schools, in that local geographic area.

Once we get to the state tournament, games are not officiated by where the game site is, but by which local board officiated the two highs schools involved during the regular season.

If a high school from local region "A" is playing a high school from local region "B", then neither region "A" officials, nor region "B" officials, will be officiating that game. Instead the state will assign officials from local region "C", or from local region "D".

If a high school from local region "A" is playing a high school that is also from local region "A", then the game will, most likely, especially in the early rounds of the tournament, be officiated by local region "A" officials.

It does away with the possibility of a team being "homered" (remember, sometimes perception, and reality, can be blurred, especially in the minds of coaches, players, and fans). We occasionally get some "homer" criticism during regular season games played across local regional geographic boundaries. We've actually had a few coaches want to bring their own officials with them when they cross these geographic boundaries to play regular season games. Of course they wouldn't actually allow the officials to ride on their team bus. Or would they?

[rockyroad]

What Coaches want is for our calls to go in their favor. Every time a whistle blows, they want it to benefit them. The rest of that list is just various different ways of saying that same thing.

[Adam]

How many coaches bother asking what officials want?

[rockyroad]

Originally Posted by Adam

How many coaches bother asking what officials want?

How many camp sessions have we sat through where they bring in the coach(es) and they tell us all this stuff, and tell us how much they respect us and the job we do...then 4 or 5 months later there is that same coach yelling and stomping their foot and wondering why they just got T'd up.

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

How many camp sessions have we sat through where they bring in the coach(es) and they tell us all this stuff, and tell us how much they respect us and the job we do...then 4 or 5 months later there is that same coach yelling and stomping their foot and wondering why they just got T'd up.

What I wonder is this . . .
After a game that, say, our crew didn't do its best, given what we had to work with or because we didn't have our "A" game that night, or after a game on which I felt I wasn't as good as I could have been, a sense of both feeling bad about it (yes, you can call it guilt, I guess) and of personal resolve to do better--to really nail it--on the next assignment results. Honest self-assessment leads properly to self-improvement.
On the other hand, does the occasional butt-head coach after his typical rant and rave and act just plain stupid game ever say to himself, "Ya know, I was a real A&$ tonight. I could have been more sportsmanlike. I feel bad about that and I'm gonna give it my all to be better on the sideline the next game. I've just got to improve myself."
Since the coaches who usually appear at our camps aren't the butt-heads, I guess I'll never know unless I ask one of the number I encounter occasionally during the season.
But I don't think so.

[zebraman]

Coaches want an experienced crew, or at least one experienced guy.
Coaches don't want strangers officiating a big game.
Coaches want sectional officials to have worked one of their games during the season.

A lot of coaches are paranoid and unfamiliarity drives them crazy. At state tournaments, I have had coaches who have seen me a few times say, "thank goodness you're on this game." That "love" generally lasts until my first call that they don't like.

Coaches think sectional games are played and officiated differently.

Well.... they have a lot of intensity (especially loser-out games) and have more talent than the teams that didn't make it that far..... so they often have a different feel to them. I don't feel like they are officiated any differently than they are when we have a high-intensity, high-talent game during the regular season.

There is a better way to ref than just blow the whistle.

Pretty vague.

Crews are better for post-season games (currently the assignments are random).

In our state, the higher rated games work the playoffs so, in theory, that would be true.

The more you talk the better ref you are.

Too general. Communication skills help, but some coaches want too much of our time and they will end up getting shut down.

Gotta protect the shooter.

Wow, brilliant.

Be aware of previous games that may have been officiated differently, the goal is consistency between games/officials.

As others have said, I didn't see your game on Tuesday. We'll try to ref tonight's game appropriately.

Gotta like kids.

I like kids and I like basketball. However, if your kids get out of line, they will get put back in line. I am expected to control the game, not make buddies with teenagers.

The game is about adjustment. Officials need to anticipate and stay ahead of the curve.

Vague. If you mean we should have continuous training, most good officials that I know do that with camps and rules discussion etc.

If a coach is out of control, talk to him.

If he is out of control, he is going to get dealt with and it isn't going to involve a nice little talking to.

If you made a mistake, admit it and move on.

I usually don't know I missed a call until I see the video tape. If you think I missed a call, ask with respect and I'll respond.... then we both move on.

Make sure to give equal opportunity to talk to officials.

I try to be consistent with both coaches, but I do not spend much time talking to coaches. Only on a limited number of reasonable questions or when unusual situations need explanation.

Consistency is the key -- watch back-to-back calls.

Identical plays should have identical calls. But if we have a charge on one end, we might have a block at the other end. They might not be identical.

Be on time to the game and get your contracts in on time.

Obviously.

Consistency in calls can be dependent on rotations and mechanics.

Most coaches don't know enough about officiating to put any detail to that general statement.

Coaches want officials to have good positioning.

You want the call to go your way. If it doesn't you might use positioning as an excuse.... but again, most of you don't generally know what the correct positioning is.

When is it my turn to make a list of what I expect out of coaches?