My First Technical Call

[Archie Lib]

In my 17th game of the season, which is a total of 17 games for me.

This is a boys' freshman game, rival schools. I am calling what I see, and just working on signal mechanics and good whistles. But every time I ended up at trail I had the home coach in my ear. He did not like my calls, nor my partner's, or God's apparently, and just went on and on as if this were Duke/UNC or the round of sixteen. I found out later that my partner was not really getting the same treatment to the same level. He must have figured out I was new at some point.

I did the best I could to ignore it through the first half and into the third quarter. Made a few comments along the "I'll keep an eye out, coach" or "I'm just calling what I see, coach" or "It's gonna be a foul every time if he moves the ballhandler" etc., etc. but I was not looking forward to ending up in his decibel area as we transitioned. He was not under my skin but I was tired of it. He just would not shut up, and my thoughts were what a remarkably poor example he was for his team and his school.

So I make a call on an out-of-bounds along the sideline near the division line tableside. He is on it right away. I am trail and moving up to inbound. It was the usual he saw a phantom touch the ball thing. The ball is headed his way so I am on that side of the thower and he is just in my ear.

At one point, during his harangue, he comments "That's the first call you've made all night!". No idea what this meant, but my response was "Well, coach, here is the second." And then T'd him up. We administer the free throws and the inbound, and he stayed relatively mellow after that.

My only thought is whether or not I should have done it sooner.

What is your general threshold for this kind of behavior?