Sunday, January 30, 2011

Coaches Gone Wild

I do believe that I have written a time or two about my exploits on the hardwood...the basketball floor wearing a black and white striped shirt.  Well, sometimes its gray with pinstripes, but I do prefer the black and white.  Anyway, yesterday I was assigned a couple of JV games; first the boys game, and then the girls.  Going into these games things were looking pretty good.  In the boys game both teams were pretty talented, and I was paired with a good partner.  That was before the game.  Those things didn't change, but from the instant of the opening tap we ended up with a nightmare on our hands.  It seems that both coaches were more interested in trying to do our jobs than their own.  Two seconds into the game the visiting coach yelled "TRAVEL!", and probably uttered that same word a good 20 times in the first 5 minutes.  Both coaches felt the need to very vocally question each and every foul call, whether that call was made or not.  By halftime both my partner and I had had enough, so the first time one of these knuckleheads hollered in the 2nd half my partner fired his weapon and hit the visiting coach with a "T".  He couldn't believe it, and claimed that we were obligated to give him warning, but nowhere in the rulebook is there any mention of the need to warn a coach who is totally out of control before "T-ing him up."  By rule in the high school game that coach now has what we call a seat belt, meaning he has to stay seated on the bench for the rest of the game and keep his mouth shut with the exception of instructing his players.  It seems like the other coach must have gotten the message, and figured he was next, as he also took the opportunity to sit down and shut up.  The rest of the game went a little better.  The kids kept pounding on each other and the foul calls followed, but we didn't have to put up with near as much obnoxious behavior.  In the girls game that followed on of the coaches chose to follow a similar path as in the first game, but I think he saw the light just before we had to turn the light on for us.  Today we had a meeting of the basketball officials here in the Spokane area, and the chief topic of conversation was how to deal with coaches who lose control and forget just what it is that they are supposed to do...that is coach the kids and not abuse the refs.  I am now armed and loaded for bear with all sorts of new techniques to get the coaches off our back, and I can't wait to use them tomorrow afternoon as I head out onto the floor again.

Now to the topic of the evening.  Man!  Is it getting cold out there.  I wheeled the trash bin out to the street and nearly froze my kiester off!  It's not so much the temperature but the wind goes right through you, especially when you go out in a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops.  Perhaps I should have prepared myself more adequately.  We are headed down to about 12 degrees tonight, and tomorrow we won't get much above 20.  At least the weather is going to be rather sunny for the next 3 or 4 days, so a little cold air will be no big deal.

In the morning it is going to be time to head out onto another court again...the tennis court...to see if I can be the butt kicker, or if I will once again be the butt kickee.  Wish me luck!

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