Today we finished our annual Girl's Basketball Memorial Weekend Tournament at FCC ( prior to FCC, we ran this at Reedley College). It is a great fundraiser for our program, but more importantly, it brings all the girls together for some early bonding. We have about 20 local high school teams who participate. It is well organized, and run professionally with CIF officials. Teams are guaranteed 5 games. Good Stuff.

Today, I witnessed three coaches exhibit questionable behavior. The first coach felt an out-of bounds call did not go his way. He held the ball under his arm, arguing with the ref. The ref explained the call, and asked politely for the ball 5 times. The coach would not give up the ball and continued to argue. He finally gave up, dropped the ball to the ground, then walked away. The ref gave him technical. This is a ref who I have known for many years, and it takes a lot to get under his skin. Very porfessional guy. There may have been more said, but I don't think so in this case. The coach came over to me, and said he was leaving at half-time. Okay......

The second coach, with different officials, didn't like a call. After riding the ref for some time, he finally used the "F" word. BAM! Technical. (Deservedly so in m opinion) The coach kept it up. The second ref came over, asked the coach to calm down, and to please to not use the word. The coach says it again to this official. BAM! Second technical. The coach takes his team off the court, down by about six with maybe four minutes left in the first half of the game. Hmmmm...

The third coach, in a quartrfinal game is riding the officails hard. He was unhappy about several no calls during the game. The coach finally calls a time-out. Instead of talking to his team, he goes up to an official and gets right in his face. BAM---technical. He continues to get in this guys grill---BAM...#2!

I don't even know where to begin with this behavior. FIrst, what do any of these situations teach your athletes? Nothing. Period. Second, by walking off the court, all you do is hurt your team and the other team because the coach essentially did not get his own way. If the games is out of control, and people are getting hurt, I might be able to understand, if both coaches are in agreeance. That was not the case here at all. In addition, all the refs were verterans. Not rookies who personalize things that are said. Not yong trainees. In my opinion, each coach acted unprofessionaly, unethically, and with little reagard for his team.

And people wonder where kids pick it up? My six year old was with me all day. A long, 10 hour day in the gym. He behaved better than these three. he got ice cream....again.