Its always fun to hear how different referees/officials would rule in specific situations. Here is a good one for you.
SCENARIO: In an ITA dual match, the player from Team A has just received his second overrule. The coach from Team A then demands that the chair official be removed or he will refuse to play. His reasons were that the official had lost control of the match and since there were 6 officials plus a referee then he had a right to demand a new chair official. The coach from team B objected and said this was not in the prerogative of the referee to remove the chair official.
How would you rule???
16 comments:
Without more information about the 2 overrules, I would tell the coach to play or tell his driver to warm up the team bus! The referee can remove the chair but only after the referee has seen that the chair is unable to do the job. Highly unlikely.
I would be interested in knowing if any readers have ever heard of a chair being replaced during a singles or doubles match.
tell Coach A to sit down and shut it.
Call referee, although unless there is reasont he Chair Umpire stays. If Player A chooses not to play then he goes on the clock and gets hit with Code Violations.
First of all, coaches have no right whatsoever to remove chair officials. This is purely a referee's decision. I'm assuming the referee is doing his/her job and monitoring all matches in progress. The referee should stand up for his/her chair officials and instruct the players to play. Any further delay would be code violations for failure to play.
I have dealt with this issue many, many times.
ITA rules do not specifically address, so defer to USTA, "a referee shall not remove a chair umpire at a player's request".
Interpretation-ITA is a team sport and there is coaching, so "player" refers to both player and his coach.
There is no coaching in USTA or professional and thus the literal words of this rule require an interpretation of "player" and application to a team sport.
Interpretation and application of rules are the cornerstone from a legal viewpoint. Precedent is also important in interpretation and application in a rule and the ITF rules have established that precedent.
Also, in the course of officiating, removing officials every time a coach is unhappy would be a dangerous precedent.
I have only seen removal one time when BOTH coaches wanted offical removed because the official was new and incompetent and it was a deciding match impt. to both teams.
Joyce
A few years ago a chair official was removed by the referee in a women's match at Texas A&M. (The referee was our very own Sara Lammerts) The removal came only after both coaches and both players wanted the chair removed--and the chair himself knew he needed to be removed so he stepped down out of the chair.
I would tend to think that if we granted a coach's request then they would all be requesting the minute we overruled their player.
Coach Wadley at Oklahoma State would run out of officials if he could have them removed just by asking (or throwing his patented fits).
Applying the rules of law to the facts,
ITA rules do not address, so defering to USTA rules, "a referee shall not remove an umpire at player's request applies to USTA and professional tennis.
ITA collegiate tennis allows coaching and it is team competition and in the spirit of the rule, this rule would undoubtedly apply to Coaching.
It would wreak havoc to allow Coaches to remove an umpire every time the coaches are unhappy about calls.
Some facts:
1) the Referee clearly has this authority (FAC)
2) coaches are not mentioned in the USTA rule that applies
3)ITA needs to clarify status of Coaches in this situation
Principal reasons Referee would agree:
-had observed match and agreed with Coach
or,-believed Coach was sincere in stating they could not get a fair match
or,-eliminate question of fairness because the option was readily available
Principal reasons Referee would not agree:
-should not remove or change official based on line calls
-did not believe Coach was sincere
and only wanted calls changed
-reluctance to set the this example.
Other facts:
Referees are often asked to remove officials
This has been done on occasion in many different areas where only one Coach requested it.However the % of times this request is granted is extremely low.
ITA needs to make this decision:
Are Coaches making this request
treated the same as players?
Are Coaches allowed to make this request?(under what guidelines?)
As a practical matter this is never done in USTA ,often done with pro line, and rarely done,but often requested in ITA.
The rule is clear, but any Referee who takes this action must rely on judgement that it benefits the match and expect to be questioned by both their peers and themselves
after the fact.
The rule needs to be specific and only the ITA Coaches can make this happen(think let serves,MTO's etc)
Another example that the DI college match is a different animal
Interesting that the infamous Sara Lammerts would be the focus of yet more controversy. Go Figure!!!!
Eeyore! Where have you been? We have missed you...
I had surgery and have been laid up for a while. But I should be back now!!!!
i just saw a great example where the coaches should have removed an official (at least the far sideline official). I was watching a match at Tulsa against Vandy and the far sideline umpire missed two crucial calls during the doubles match. In both cases, the chair umpire appealed to the sideline umpire to make the call and in both instances, he overruled the call made by the players, although from us in the peanut gallery, it appeared the balls in both instances were called correctly by the players. Unfortunately, I believe the sideline umpire WAS the referee for all Tulsa home matches...
Unfortunately, there were THREE overrules against the Vandy team in the doubles match. Need I say more?
Haha - Sounds like home cookin' going down in Tulsa.
I talked with a couple of very reputable and well respected coaches over the weekend and they both agreed that there is HOMECOOKING in Tulsa. Kind of scary isn't it. I always thought that homecooking only occurred in the SEC.
RN:
I saw it at UALR as a coach, at UNO was the worst ever. Whenever an Umpire brags about how nice and sweet the home team players are, you know immediately that were will be issues.
Always go back to match against UALR and a UALR girl yells "MF" in spanish and the umpire who called all their matches did not know what she said.
I was acting as a referee when both coaches, both the #1 players and the members of both teams were screaming at the umpire. BOTH coaches came to me to ask if the official could be replaced. There was no doubt after I assumed the responsibility that the match went on without a hitch. I then got the third degree from our association, and told I didn't have rules authority. I believe to this day I made the correct decision based on my observations, and the results of my decision on the behavior, then on, in that match.
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