The dreaded evil eye stare.
From time to time I like to share unique and special scenarios that happen around the ITA world--and we had a really good one this weekend! Of course it happened to me so I can vouch for its authenticity...
In a men's ITA singles match the assistant coach of player B kept complaining to the chair that Player A was taunting his player after every point. The chair official (being me) was very careful to watch Player A after every point and never saw any evidence of taunting in any way, shape, or form.
Player A eventually won the match and the assistant coach stormed up the chair to confront me about the taunting (again.) He said, "I can't believe you never coded that player when he was taunting my player after nearly every point." I assured him that I had heard his earlier complaint but had not witnessed nor heard any taunting by Player A. I told him I never heard the players say anything to each other during the match. He then replied, "He wasn't saying anything--he was staring at my player."
After nearly falling out of the chair with that explanation, I quickly told him that this was men's collegiate tennis and "staring" was not a code violation. His reply was, "you need to get a rule book and learn what you're doing because staring is a code violation."
My simple and most succinct reply was that I would buy him a rule book so he could learn what he was talking about.
After that exchange, we both went out separate ways--but I was grateful to learn that in some people's minds that "staring" is a code violation. We will need to bring that up with the rules committee for future reference...
