Communication

As a crew chief, I have 13 other officials on my crew. I supervise the overall activities of the crew including education and training and game assignments. Some associations have smaller established…

Sometimes we freeze, brain-fart, head up and lock, swallow our whistle, or panic. We make the wrong call. It happens. How we react when we snap out of it and refocus is…

If you’re a little older like me, you may remember Major League Baseball confrontations between an old-school manager (think Billy Martin, Earl Weaver, or Tommy Lasorda) and an umpire. Both men’s faces…

In most cases, a disagreement with a coach will end with the coach walking away and moving on to the next play. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. What do we…

In the last Ready for Play article, we discussed how coaches want good listeners. We need to discipline ourselves to completely listen to the coach’s concern without immediately jumping in with an…

Big 12 Coordinator of Officials Greg Burks stated coaches want good listeners. He says most coach interaction is complaining and we just need to listen. Many times a coach is not expecting…