How much rope, after you mess up?

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by PATRICK

Every coach, regardless of his or her background, should get treated the exact same way in any contest we officiate!

And I do. BUT, from an ethical conduct stand point: If you are a sports official who also coaches, even if your coach a sport that you do not officiate, you are a sports official first and must conduct yourself as a sports official even when coaching. In fact, when you attend a sporting event as a spectator, even if the sport is one you do not officiate, you are an official first and foremost and should conduct yourself accordingly.

I cannot tell you home many times when our sons were young jr. high school and younger. I coached their youth basketball teams and was a spectator at their summer league baseball games. The officials who adjudicate that level of games many times are either young officials trying to learn their profession or veteran officials who only care about collecting a game fee and do not give a donkey's backside whether the do a good job or not. But you can be assured that you could tell one way or another what I thought of an official's screw up especially when I was coaching the boy's basketball teams. I would even get upset when my "better half" would yell at the officials. The great thing is that the parents of our son's respected my position as a sports officials an my code of ethics.

MTD, Sr.