Questions for coaches

[rickref72]

Coaches we all know at the 6 man level you get the newest of all of us officials. At times your patience is easily tried and I know and respect your commitment to the young men as well as your sacrifice from family for them and the communities. I am actually embarking on new off season initiatives within my organization to train and do more for our newer/ younger officials. I am not removed from 6 man even after 13 years. I have a couple each year as well as playoff games each year.

I am asking you to be candid with me and provide me, in order your most import concerns you want from officials who work games. I know consistency is a top priority. I think that is the hardest item to address across the state, regions, and even individuals. Outside the obvious what can you give me? Thanks for your time and feedback.


Example may be 1. Strong and open communication
2. hustle
3. appearance is sharp

etc

 

[koolies_r_us]

A big one in my opinion would be knowledge of rules, expecially those rules that differ from 11-man to 6-man!

 

[loveofgame]

The main thing i've noticed this year, both with new and seasoned refs would be how they understand the rules. There should be one understanding across the board. Examples i've noticed this year have included: Cut blocking and horse collar tackles. We have yet to get a crew that agrees to how the last crew told us the rule. Therefore, each week we have had to adjust how we train our kids for this situations. Oh, I also forgot, rules on hitting the center have also changed week to week for us. I understand reffing is a very hard thing to do, but for the fairness of the game I think there needs to be better communication between the refs on these issues. Appreciate what you guys do, god bless.

 

[CJN]

Professionalism is something that we expect. This year we have seen some pretty weird things in that regard. Mutual respect goes a long way.

A few situations that we have seen this year:

1. An official was giving us tips on things that we should run while losing a game. After letting the official know that it wasn't part of our scheme the official continued over the next several plays to argue that a certain screen pass would work. He told us that he coaches flag football and knows what he's talking about. He then proceeds shake his head and look at us like we are stupid when things aren't going our way. Luckily we came back from way down and won the game.

2. Intentional grounding was called in a game by an official in a game. This call was made by an older official that could not move fast and had an apparent limp. He stood in the way of our swing pass a few times and was too slow to move out of the way. Anyway, the QB was getting sacked when he flicked the ball forward hitting the intented receiver in the foot. The official was literally standing between the QB and the receiver who was 4-5 yards away from the QB. After the flag was thrown I tell the official that the ball hit the receiver in the foot. The official says he doesn't care.

I tried to get in touch with someone from TASO without any luck. I have the video with the clip of the incident but apparently answering a phone call or email is out of the question.

3. While We were the visiting team at a game the chain volunteers kept moving the chains. The official yells at the hair gang telling them that he will give the advantage to the other team next time they move without him being ready. They moved so they gave the first down to the home team. When one of our coaches protests he gets a 15 yard penalty and the official comes to our sideline and gets so close to my coach that the bill of his hat was touching his forehead. He told him that our chain gang is disrupting the game and they caused the problem. Our coach told him that the chain gang is not from our side and that he just punished the wrong team. Because he was mad he decided to give the someone a free first down, intentionally given the wrong spot and a 15 yarder tacked on...all to the wrong team. Wow, totally unprofessional and weird.

I understand bad calls. I've had my share of bad calls this year but we've seen a special breed of unprofessionlism this year.

 

[freeagent]

I tried to get in touch with someone from TASO without any luck. I have the video with the clip of the incident but apparently answering a phone call or email is out of the question.

Interesting. Not sure what chapter you use, but we use the TASO Austin chapter. Every week, they're sending e-mails asking for us to (1) send film to them of our varsity game and (2) evaluate the crew forms. Honestly, we haven't done that. I guess no response is a plus, but maybe we should respond.

And sixman is not that strong in Austin, so we'd think we would be getting the runts of the litter, but they've been decent crews for the nine years we've used them. Most of them leave their white canes in the car and their seeing-eye dogs rest quietly behind the end-zone during the game. Even pick up after themselves (the dogs and the refs).

As for chain crews, again, before every game, the crews that come here from Austin ask to meet with the chain crew and clock operator. There should be no question where they're from.

 

[bad99a]

I recently got out of coaching but when i was we used a program called hudl for our video. It is an online shareable program. I think it would be a great investment for chapters. Coaches could send film to chapters with the push of a button. Chapter officials could make notes and critique games then share with other officials. I think rhis would be a great help in the consitant area

 

[fencewire]

Professionalism is something that we expect. This year we have seen some pretty weird things in that regard. Mutual respect goes a long way.

A few situations that we have seen this year:

1. An official was giving us tips on things that we should run while losing a game. After letting the official know that it wasn't part of our scheme the official continued over the next several plays to argue that a certain screen pass would work. He told us that he coaches flag football and knows what he's talking about. He then proceeds shake his head and look at us like we are stupid when things aren't going our way. Luckily we came back from way down and won the game.

2. Intentional grounding was called in a game by an official in a game. This call was made by an older official that could not move fast and had an apparent limp. He stood in the way of our swing pass a few times and was too slow to move out of the way. Anyway, the QB was getting sacked when he flicked the ball forward hitting the intented receiver in the foot. The official was literally standing between the QB and the receiver who was 4-5 yards away from the QB. After the flag was thrown I tell the official that the ball hit the receiver in the foot. The official says he doesn't care.

I tried to get in touch with someone from TASO without any luck. I have the video with the clip of the incident but apparently answering a phone call or email is out of the question.

3. While We were the visiting team at a game the chain volunteers kept moving the chains. The official yells at the hair gang telling them that he will give the advantage to the other team next time they move without him being ready. They moved so they gave the first down to the home team. When one of our coaches protests he gets a 15 yard penalty and the official comes to our sideline and gets so close to my coach that the bill of his hat was touching his forehead. He told him that our chain gang is disrupting the game and they caused the problem. Our coach told him that the chain gang is not from our side and that he just punished the wrong team. Because he was mad he decided to give the someone a free first down, intentionally given the wrong spot and a 15 yarder tacked on...all to the wrong team. Wow, totally unprofessional and weird.

I understand bad calls. I've had my share of bad calls this year but we've seen a special breed of unprofessionlism this year.

Taking into account that there are aways two sides to the story and typically the truth is somewhere in the middle... even being in the middle can't excuse #1 and #3. #2, OK, maybe he didn't see him, bad calls happen as you noted, whatever... but #1 and #3 need to be reported to the chapter that was calling those games. I wouldn't go to the state level, as you can see getting a response is something akin to getting a response from the DMV, but those issues should be absolutely addressed with the assigning secretary of the chapter that worked those games.

#1, typically the coaches are trying to help us officiate, "coaching" the coaches is absolutely out of bounds.
#3, if the chain crew is that bad, fire them, period... don't punish a team (either team) for something someone that you are in charge of did, not even addressing the behavior.
#2, if you have video, see if the chapter is using Hudl, many chapters either already have it or are in the process of getting it, the assigning secretary of the chapter working that game would know right off if they have access or not. I think you can even share a video with someone not on hudl. If you don't have hudl, send the game via DVD to the chapter. Tip, don't just send in the calls that you have a problem with, send the whole game. This is two fold, we can and do use these game tapes for training with Hudl, that might be a bad call that we use, but we don't only show bad calls as what not to do, but we also use good calls and good mechanics to show what to do, just like you use the videos for player correction and praise, we do the same.

 

[Texman301]

In my opinion;

#1 Know the Rules and how the specific rule is interpreted. I do not want an official to throw a flag because the infraction was what he THOUGHT. I want him to know. Ex. The legal definition of a horse collar. I don't want HIS interpretation of a horse collar, but the rules interpretation of a horse collar. This leads into ......
#2 Consistency throughout the organization. I don't want 5 different interpretations of what a horse collar tackle is.
#3 If the official makes a mistake, be man enough, or woman enough, to correct the mistake. If you threw a flag or blew the whistle and the call was incorrect, fix it. Waive it off. DO THE RIGHT THING!
#4 PLEASE do not assume you know more about the rules than the coaches. As a coach, this is our life. I know there are exceptions to every rule. But I do this for a LIVING along with teaching, most officials do it as a past time. I spend countless hours watching film, studying the opposing team, knowing the ins and outs of my sport, I do not need an official that calls one or two games a week and those 2 games being the only real exposure they have, to come in and be arrogant enough to think they know more about the rules and the interpretations than the coaches do.
#5 Be respectful and professional. If an official makes a disparaging remark to a coach(it happens both ways), then expect that coach to be a bit upset. You talk a good game at pregame about coming and talking to us when we need to, then do it. Don't just stand out on the field and ignore or act like you don't care what the coach has to say. Respect is earned, its not a right. I know that also goes both ways!

And last but not least...
#6 Remember these nights are for the KIDS, not to show off how much you know or don't know about football or basketball. You should be a little spot on the radar, NOT the giant meteor about to destroy our planet. You are there to make sure the game is safe and legal and goes off without a hitch, not to show how good you look in stripes.

Again, just my humble opinion.

PS. I did officiate both football and basketball for 6 years during college. Took me longer than most due to having to work my way through school.

 

[fencewire]

I tried to get in touch with someone from TASO without any luck. I have the video with the clip of the incident but apparently answering a phone call or email is out of the question.

Interesting. Not sure what chapter you use, but we use the TASO Austin chapter. Every week, they're sending e-mails asking for us to (1) send film to them of our varsity game and (2) evaluate the crew forms. Honestly, we haven't done that. I guess no response is a plus, but maybe we should respond.

And sixman is not that strong in Austin, so we'd think we would be getting the runts of the litter, but they've been decent crews for the nine years we've used them. Most of them leave their white canes in the car and their seeing-eye dogs rest quietly behind the end-zone during the game. Even pick up after themselves (the dogs and the refs).

As for chain crews, again, before every game, the crews that come here from Austin ask to meet with the chain crew and clock operator. There should be no question where they're from.

I would definitely send the video, like players, officials that watch video improve as they can see where they are making their mistakes. Granted, not all officials are interested in getting better, and that is a disappointing truth, but for the ones that are, video is invaluable and is really the only way. The evaulation process is somewhat silly, but it is probably better if it is done after the season, when you can (for the most part) leave emotion out of the process, also then you have all of the crews that worked games to evaluate against each other.

If you look at all the evals from a chapter, pooled them together, you typically would see that the team that lost will be more critical than the team that won and vice versa. Some of the questions are silly (especially the UIL evaluation form). The zebra-ware evaluation isn't that great either, because just like we don't know how to coach, coaches don't know how to officiate, and really don't know the mechanics to be able to effectively evaluate officials. There are things that coaches can evaulate, professionalism, communication, appearance, flow of the game, etc... Mechanics? probably not...

The evaluations to pay attention to, IMO, winning coaches that are critical. Losing coaches that feel you did a good job.

Unfortunately the only good evaluators are former officials and many times due to the nature of officiating, they don't want to give back.

 

[Coach_P_Elks]

1. Professionalism
a. be on time
b. get your pregame stuff done(before the game)
c. put your clothes on right.(cant believe i have to use this one, but it has happened before)
2. Knowledge of Rules
a. general rules of the game
b. sport specific rules (i.e. differences for 6/11 man)
c. chapter wide rules interpretations for cut-blocks, horse collar, unsportsmanlike conduct, helmet/helmet contact & defensless players

3. Explain situations to both coaches, at all times
a. dont tell coaches it none of their business if the call went for/against them.
b. talk to both coaches about issues either coach is seeing/asking about
c. Coaches= coach, players = play, officials= officiate. (its that simple)

 

[TheRef59]

One problem with a lot of the calls are, they are by deffinition, "A judgement call". Each person's judgement is different. Hore collar for example. One persons definition of immediate is different from another person's.
4 people can see the same care wreck and you will usually get 5 different answers as someone will change their mind of what they saw. I like what RickRef is asking, because though we can't make it perfect, maybe we can make is less imperfect.

From an officials stand point I try and make sure my linesmen give coaches quick explanations of calls that coaches have quesions about.

Holding is another that is called differently by each official. Again, it's a judgement call. I completely understand frustration, but also understand, we officiate games in which coaches want holding called on almost every single play and games in which coaches don't want it called at all. (Except on the other team of course).

I am also reading this blog closely and writing down what each coach is saying because a lot of it can easily be incorportated. Better communication usually leads to better and smoother games. I know as an official that's what I want to see. I also want the kids to decide the outcome of the game. I've seen on film in the past where either myself or a crewmember blew a call and that eats at me, because it makes me wonder did it have an impact on the final score.

Please keep talking coaches, and be honest in your assessments. We need feedback, but not pissed off feedback, honest feedback.

Thank You

 

[TheRef59]

Wow. please parden the above typo's. Remember, I'm blind and can't see the letters very well. lol

 

[JasonTX]

I recently got out of coaching but when i was we used a program called hudl for our video. It is an online shareable program. I think it would be a great investment for chapters. Coaches could send film to chapters with the push of a button. Chapter officials could make notes and critique games then share with other officials. I think rhis would be a great help in the consitant area

Our chapter uses HUDL. We get video from all of our 11 Man schools. We get video from 1 private school sixman. None of our other sixman schools use HUDL. TASO has been selling this idea to the chapters for at least that past 3 years and each year I know that more and more chapters are getting onboard with it. We do as you mention, watch each game and then make notes and share that with the crew. We then take around 20 or so plays each week and share them with the whole chapter. Since we started using it I have been able to watch officials evolve from some poor mechanics into having great mechanics. If you've never seen yourself work then most times you don't know you are doing something wrong.

Since we don't get enough sixman video, I'd love for any coach who has HUDL, who wouldn't mind sharing some games with me. I don't care who the officials are, I just want to be able to use it for training our new officials for next season. Send me a PM if you would share with me.

 

[ZeroRisk]

HUDL has been a great resource for our chapter as well, but we aren't getting any video from the six-man schools. I know there are a few six-man schools who have the program, but the fact of the matter is that it is pretty expensive and the schools have many more important things to spend their money on. Can't blame 'em for not picking up a luxury item like HUDL, but it is nice to have if you can get your hands on it.

We often carry a blank DVD and a packaging envelope with pre-paid postage to give to the coach as well. We've gotten a lot of six-man films that way.

 

[JasonTX]

I agree with the cost factor in why some of the sixman teams don't use it. The one sixman school that we have that uses it got some of the parents to pitch in for it. The parents like it too because they can view their kids games when the coach shares it with each player. A lot of players use it to make "highlight" videos of themselves. Perhaps the coaches can bring this up and get some donations to cover the $800 annual fee for HUDL. HUDL even has an option where you can make a highlight video of the season and they can put it on DVD for you that you then turn around an sale.

 

[bulldawgs]

You can also use google drive. The 25 gig version is only a couple bucks a month. I store the videos there and send the links out. Uploading is slow so I usually do that at night while I sleep. You can specify certain individuals to get files if you like and they have to sign in to get them or you can share without as many restrictions. The files are web based so they dont require a download to view unless you want to save them. Another thing I like is that I can share anything including documents. I know Hudl has numerous features and I have no doubt it is worth the money, but it is a bit rich for my blood.

 

[stewart sr.]

gamefilm 360 ... I was sent film this year using this free sight

 

[rickref72]

gamefilm 360 ... I was sent film this year using this free sight

Thanks I will check this site out. It might be a good alternative for our teams not using HUDL, to share with us.