Dealing With Opposing Coaches

[DanGenck]

So here's a new one-

You play an out of conference game each year. The school you play against is not in your conference or even your division. You play the game because it fills an open week in your schedule. For all intents and purposes, you are an "A Division" school and they are a "B Division" school. Your division (A) is tougher, bigger schools, more competition, etc.

The opposing coach is not someone you get along with. The coach is loud, obnoxious, disrespectful to you, and also attempts to officiate the game by nagging the refs consistently. To make matters worse, this coach played at a big time Division I school (Ivy League, let's say) and they hold some level of clout in your geographic region.

When you play against this team, you get some of the worst calls you ever get. So bad that you feel this year it cost you the game, a first in several years of playing against this school.

So... do you keep the opponent because you need the game? Or do you threaten to drop them from your schedule in hopes of more positive behavior on the part of the other coach? Or do you just drop them all together and try to find someone else to fill your schedule?

Give due respect to the difficulty of coordinating schedules. If you cannot replace this game, you will have a full week off early in your season, in fact, the off week would come right before your first conference game.

I open the floor to your thoughts.

[scooter]

drop the game. Its not worth it. You should be able to find competition fairly easily with the OOC schedule increasing every year.

Disrespectful coaches has always been something I have never tolerated. As a former youth soccer ref, I would never deal with someone like this if I didn't have to.

[Jana]

Agreed. Schedule your men for a service project - run a free 2 hour clinic for a new middle school team in your region. Your men will learn a great lesson about giving back to the sport, and you'll all enjoy the day more.

[culax]

Schedule your men for a service project.

Great advice. We try to do something each spring. Last year it was a lacrosse clinic for high school students from Ecuador, this year we helped host and chaperone the winter formal for young adults with developmental disabilities.

We get a lot more out of our service than we give. It can be great for team bonding and chemistry. It requires the players to plan, delegate, meet responsibilities, etc. It is also nice for me to interact with the guys in a different (non-lacrosse) environment.

[mholtz]

I vote drop the game. I ran into something very similar a few years back (in fact it was almost identical, except it was a fall event). The coach wasn't exactly disrespectful, but instead did strange things with the schedule (like scheduling the furthest teams for 9am and 5pm games on the same day with nothing in between, and changing to "club rules" like no failure to advance, etc). I found that you get much more negative from an event like that than you do positive.

Your guys would probably be better off playing Call of Duty all Saturday than being at an event like that.

[Mr. Jefferson]

Why cancel or drop it??? Do the refs really let this person "sway" the game?? Do they really listen to him and get "influenced"???

This sounds as if its a gripe against someone on a personal level - not a on the field game situation. Its known that not everyone in the world will get a long - so why drop the game and let this person "win". How about rallying the troops with you against this team - and not the individual - wouldnt it be better to win than walk away???

I strongly doubt the influence can be that persuasive to the officials - they run the show , not the coaches.

Just keep kicking his butt.

[LaxRef]

changing to "club rules" like no failure to advance, etc).

As officials, few things drive us more crazy than not knowing what the rules are/will be. Locally, we've gotten into the habit of making teams put rule variations in writing well before the event so we can see if they make sense or if all of the implications have been considered.

You want running time? Sure, but then you'd better not allow horns, since then the leading team can use horns to run down the clock. If you're going running time and you need to fit those games into hour time slots, how many timeouts do you allow, and for how long? If you do two 2-minute timeouts per half, you might not stay on schedule. That sort of thing is important and needs to be discussed before game day.

If we show up and at the last minute are told, well, we're not using that rule today, the answer is generally, "We didn't get it in writing, so we are." We also don't allow any variations on safety equipment for liability reasons.

[Jana]

If the game won't improve their national standing, and it's a headache for the coach and players, and the rules aren't clear - I say drop the game. There are far better ways to spend the time and build team cohesion.

That game would be "work", instead of play. And...all work,no play makes John Laxer a very dull boy. Have som fun instead. You'll all look forward to it instead of dreading a game made difficult by conduct beyond your control.

[LAXDawg14]

yea i would drop the game too.
im sure there would be other teams who would want to play that weekend.

[ZagGrad]

We had this problem with a team I coach against at the high school level. We opted to take a forfeit rather than play them (there were more matters that forced us to take this approach and since then, this team has been kicked out of our league).

Instead of playing the team in question, we had an intersquad scrimmage during the scheduled game time and the kids loved it.

Do you hold an alumni game? Schedule it during the time you would play this other team.

[miclax5]

Just think how good you and your team will feel when you beat this team next time. It another challenge and will eventually make you and your team better.

Play the game.

[Kadillac]

Sounds like the making of a great rivalry to me...