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"Behind the Stripes" is written by veteran WIAA official B.J. Ligocki, an active message board poster who has helped many people on the forum with rules questions and clarifications over the years. The purpose of this feature is to help educate readers on any rules changes, clarify procedures and rules, provide case studies and examples, and answer any questions people may have on officiating or rules.

Feel free to email any rules or officiating questions you have at wissports.ask.a.ref@gmail.com for inclusion in future articles.

B.J. Ligocki:  Football (Master Level – 8 yrs – State Championship); Basketball (Level 5 – 16 years – Regional); Baseball/Softball (Level 5 – 16 years - Regional)

A question that has come up on occasion by coaches I have spoken with is, “What is the best way to go about communicating with officials?”.  Of course there is no sure method that will work with any official, because like coaches, there is a wide gap of attitude, experience, and personality, but there are strategies you can use to improve your relationship.

Attitude

Hearing fans and coaches talk about officials does not give a person the best impression.  As a group the best we can hope for from fans is indifference, and while coaches can appreciate good officiating more, it doesn’t seem by much.  If coaches go into the game with the attitude that officials are professionals that have put a significant amount of time, preparation, and expense into being there for their game, it can only help.  As officials, we are the only people in the gym that 100% do not care who wins.  While we will most likely never officiate a perfect game, your views are biased towards the team you support or coach and we are not going to agree on every call.

Communication

This is the area where common sense needs to be used the most.  If a person is yelling and complaining to you for 90 minutes straight while you are doing your job, what would your attitude be towards that person?  So the lesson here is to treat the officials like you expect to be treated.  When they introduce themselves at the beginning of the game, do your best to remember their names and use it throughout the game.  When you disagree with a call, ask the official what he or she saw, and explain how you saw it differently.  Of course you have to be efficient because time is often a factor, but if they are standing next to you on a free throw, you have a minute to talk.  You also have to pick your spots when you know you can make a point because no matter how polite you are, we aren’t going to explain every call to you.  Also, if you study the rules yourself and use the correct terms like “legal guarding position,” “advantage/disadvantage,” and “displacement,” you will probably be taken more seriously.  As far as players talking with officials, that is going to be trickier and very dependent on the individual officials.  Just like in everyday life, sometimes you will run into people (officials) that don’t communicate well, are lazy (uniforms, rules knowledge, attitude, etc.), and are hard to deal with, and you just have to get through it the best you can.

Confrontation

At some point an official is going to make a mistake, whether it’s a judgment or on a rule, it’s going to happen.  If you believe there is an incorrect interpretation of a rule, your best bet is to ask if he will consult with his partner(s), or appeal directly to the partner if it’s possible.  You are also allowed to have the scorer’s table call the officials over to question the call, but that will cost you a timeout if you are unable to persuade them of the error.  If you have a rulebook at hand, you can ask them if you can show them the rule in a timely manner, but don’t approach them with rulebook in hand.  If the officials are sure of their ruling, the best you can do is look it up later, either after the game or halftime (not a timeout, free throw, or end of quarter), and bring it up if the situation presents itself.  An email or phone call is probably not a good idea and it is never a good idea to confront the officials in the locker room.  Good officials will look up anything that came up themselves. 

If it’s a judgment call, you can try your best but unless you can get the official to appeal an out of bounds call, the call will stand.  You can push it as far as you want to make a point and it can either hurt you or help you later depending on the attitude of the official.  There are different philosophies on admitting getting a judgment call wrong, but of course it won’t fix the problem if the admission is after the consequences.

Miscellaneous

-Any of the above advice applies to head coaches.  Assistants, statisticians, trainers, and bench players should have nothing to say to an official.

-Fans and players often seem to follow the lead of the head coach. If the officials like coming to your school because of how they are treated, that can’t be bad for you.  

-Officials talk amongst themselves about coaches and teams, how do you want to be perceived?

-Please don’t bring up the foul count.  We can see it on the scoreboard too, and in my opinion you are either telling me I’m incompetent or cheating for one team.

-Bringing up mechanics or positioning probably isn’t going to go well.  I see it the same as me questioning your play calling.

-“They have never called that before” or “The last guys didn’t call it” is not an excuse.

-I think it’s hard for anyone, but we are supposed to come to every game with a clean slate in regards to any situations (bad calls, technical, etc.) that have happened in the past.  Like most people, being reminded of a mistake I made can be embarrassing and won’t improve my disposition.

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These are my recommendations and I can’t speak for all officials, but these suggestions shouldn’t get you in too much trouble.  I know I have plenty of stories about dealing with coaches and I know fans and coaches will have their own stories about the refs, but hopefully this helps coaches and fans see what the officials are thinking.  I welcome any questions or comments.