I love working within the roles of referee and reporter, as each position needs an equal amount of passion for uniquely different reasons.
This season, more than ever, I've been able to do both, and I notice the coaches who coach referees a lot more as a reporter than I ever have as an official.
Simply put, I'm amazed at the amount of hyperactive bluster coaches waste on officials.
A sport's natural rhythm lends itself to coach-watching as a reporter. In basketball, the coach is more subdued in the first half when his or her team's offensive attack takes place opposite the bench. In the second half, watching the action and coach's reaction is a very enjoyable task. Football takes place to an almost militaristic routine. Huddle, align in formation, set, snap, and repeat. Baseball's simplistic lull between pitches and plays lends itself to comments, catcalls and plenty of non-verbal messaging, too.
As an official, you're ultra-conscious of eyes and opinions being cast towards you and naturally shield yourself from drawing unneeded ire or interaction. As a reporter, it's easy to blend in to the scenery. Coaches often have no clue I'm observing their reactions or outbursts to the officiating.
Most coaches are Driver-A personalities by nature, and as such, they're accustomed to often getting most of what they want, when they want it. They're also used to a healthy amount of iron-fisted control. Because they have no such control on officials, it's the officials who usually bear the frustration of the coach.
To be fair, officials need to do a better job of understanding this facet of their job. Only the coach is thrust into a different psychological environment during a contest. Understanding the coach's daily environment is a much better focus point. Most players give officials very little problem, because their environment changes very little on game day. In class, at home, in practice or at the game, adults remain in charge and carry the penalty of exclusion for poor behavior or sportsmanship. Officials are trained to work within the context of the game and very little else.
Coaches spend as much as 80% of their time doing everything other than coaching the game. Having to control so much else just to get to the apex of that day's game, it should come as little surprise when coaches don't get what they want from game-assigned officials or cannot control the decision-making of the official, the subsequent behavior towards the official sometimes becomes anything but logical.
I'm not making an excuse for coaches, and I think too many officials are scared to utilize some of prescribed penalties in the rulebook to curb this behavior.
As an official you see about half of this behavior, simply because you cannot observe the action you're being paid to observe and the coach at the same time. I just didn't realize how much it goes on as an official compared to serving as a reporter.
Perhaps I had been refereeing without working from the other side for far too long.
Regards...
~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries and an 18-year official in three sports.
Comments