I'm glad someone brought this up. As I see it there are two problems with officiating, and one of them is Coaches that do not know the rules. The second is officials that don't know the rules. I saw several of both this weekend. We as coaches need to know the rules. I am surprised every weekend to hear a coach arguing a call and I'm sitting there listening knowing good and well that the official is right and the coach has no clue. This is why officials that DO know the rules get so frustrated. They are getting bombarded by Coaches that are questioning calls that should never be questioned.
Officials that DO NOT know the rules, ITS YOUR JOB!!! FIGURE IT OUT!!! I have had several officials that made a bad call and when I questioned it they got the head official and the call was made right. The official, usually younger, would thank me after the match and say that they were not aware of a rule change and they would be calling it correctly from then on. A LEARNING EXPERIENCE. This weekend an official called a leg cradle illegal, he was very adament that it was illegal. I asked for the Head Official and he corrected it. The official never acknoweldged that he was wrong or apologized. Just changed the score and went on. Officials make mistakes, and it is ok to make mistakes, but they have to be willing to listen and learn. They are not right just because the have on the stripes.
As for questioning a call. You may challenge a call where a rule may have been violated or overlooked, but not a judgement call. If you challenge a judgement call, you will be hit with coach misconduct. The best way to ask about this is to ask the official what criteria was met for the call. A simple explanation will suffice most coaches. Not having a reason or criteria is unacceptable. One more thing, every call is not a judgement call. Please be able to clarify for the coach so he may LEARN ALSO.
Last edited by Beeson; 01/29/12 06:50 PM.
