There was a recent situation in the State Cups where the procedure in dismissing a coach was followed perfectly.

In this situation, one of the coaches was barking at the referee from the very start of the game. He was loud, questioning decisions, visibly upset and leaving his technical area. Although the technical area was not marked, he was near the halfway line and in some cases, crossed over the halfway line.

During these State cup games, a 4th official was assigned. This particular 4th official is very experienced, and she was very adamant informing the coach to stay within his area and refrain from dissenting.

The action of the 4th official had little effect and that is when the referee came to the bench area and gave the coach a final warning. He behaved for a short period of time when the coach again, started his questioning of decisions. The referee waited for the ball to be out of play, held play and went to the coach and dismissed him, telling him he had to leave. The coach left without incident.

The story gets better and a learning matter for all referees to “think” out of the box to get the job done.

After the coach was dismissed, the assistant coach began to leave his technical area and started to bark at the referee. The 4th official sternly told the coach that he must remain in the technical area and refrain from his dissent. The coach complied for a while but then started to leave the technical area. This is where the 4th official used her tools. As mentioned before, the technical area was not marked, so she went into her bag, pulled out her flags and laid them down on each bench indicating that no coach or bench personnel can come past the flag. Such a simple technique to get the message sent. From that point on, neither coach left the technical area.

Well done crew.