dirty hypocrite

Today's home game against Andrew Hill (we won, 10-5) would have been really fun if it hadn't been for one thing. Two, actually. Two of the assistant coaches (well, I'm only sure that one of them is the assistant coach, the other might have been his friend or something) from Silver Creek came to our game today.

I was watching Jessica's and Michelle's game when I noticed two guys wearing red standing a couple of yards from me. I thought, hmm.. these guys look kind of familiar. Where have I seen them before?

Then I was like, OH MY GOD, SILVER CREEK. The guy who must have a stick up his butt because he's so anal about rules is here. We can't kick them out even if we wanted to (and yes, we wanted to) because after all, the game is a public event. Spectators can come in and watch if they want. But they did more than spectate...details later. Apparently Silver Creek had a game with Indy today and lost 5-10 (hah), so the assistant coaches must have decided to come over to Piedmont and spy on spectate our game with Andrew Hill.

I suspect that the mean assistant coach (Red Jacket) looks down on me and Alex (me, especially) because we're in college, almost fresh out of high school. Dude, it's not like we can help our ages; would he rather have Alan here? Oh, actually, he probably would prefer Alan.. considering they're so much alike. 1) condescending w/ younger people 2) anal about rules 3) no respect for the other team 4) bad sportsmanship.

Want examples?

I was watching Camille and Mariah when Alex calls me over. Andrew Hill had called for a service judge for the mix#1 game, so he asks me to do it. I'm kind of unwilling because I've never done service judge before, but...okay, who else would do it, you know? As I get a chair and clipboard from Alex, Red Jacket comes over and asks me if I "know the rules for service." Um, I'm pretty sure I do know the rules, dude. Well, apparently I don't, because as I sit down in the chair and ready the clipboard (I've seen the Indy coach doing service judge for one of my games before, so I think I know what to do), I see Mary and Trung looking expectantly at me. I tell them to tuck in their shirts, forgetting that they've probably never had a service judge before. Okay, then Red Jacket comes over and tells me exasperatedly, "You've got to explain the rules to them." He, the assistant coach for Silver Creek, strides onto the court and proceeds to tell them to tuck in their shirts, faults, etc., while I stare at him in disbelief.

I might be overreacting, but I think he completely stepped out of line. He's allowed to be in the gym because it's a public event and spectators are allowed, but I don't think spectators can take it upon themselves to go onto the courts and did what Red Jacket just did. I'm actually shocked that Red Jacket would overlook this, seeing as he's so anal about rules and guidelines (he was the one who tapped his watch and yelled at me+aaron when we apparently went over the 90-second coaching session between the first set and the second of Chris's and Angela's game at Silver Creek). It would have been much more respectful (and much better sportsmanship) of him to have given me a short explanation of what I was to tell them, and then let me explain to them, instead of completely undermining me, since I'm the assistant coach for the HOME team. I mean, I know that the Silver Creek coach (Red Jacket is the assistant) is the chair for the whole MHAL league, but I really don't think Red Jacket should feel privileged enough to take things into his own hands.

This guy needs a good swift kick in the ...

[did I say anything? *whistles*]

After the game, I brought the chair and clipboard back to Sarah and we sat there and complained at length about the two Silver Creek assistants there. Right before Samuel and Aaron went to third set, we saw their two Andrew Hill opponents getting water a couple of yards from our table. Red Jacket strode over to them and began giving them advice in their game against Samuel and Aaron ("You should hit to blahblahblah"... I heard him, so you can't say that he was merely cheering them on).

Hey man, I didn't know spectators could give advice to players, even if they happen to be an assistant coach for another school. I didn't know coaches could give advice to players who are not even on the team for which they coach, even if the said coach happens to be connected to the chair of the entire badminton league. Watching Red Jacket conferring with the Andrew Hill coach... I felt like they both wanted to bring the Piedmont team down. I'm not going to make any claims that can possibly be used against me. This is just the feeling I took from this scene.

Cool! Hey, does that mean I can come to Silver Creek's home games now and help coach the players of the away team? not that I'd want to... just saying, as obviously Red Jacket would say it's okay. It might not be against the rules, but that is extremely bad sportsmanship. Red Jacket was completely belittling to me and Alex and the fact that he took advantage of the loopholes in the rules (which he inflicts upon others, yet bends for his own benefit) shows that he has extremely poor sportsmanship. I hope he understands this, though I really don't expect him to.

p.s. The fact that he graduated from Andrew Hill and helps coach them from time to time does give him incentive to help out the Andrew Hill players... but he forgoes his own careful administration of the rules. Only the coaches and captains from each team can coach their players. Note: FROM EACH TEAM. Red Jacket is neither the coach/captain from Andrew Hill nor Piedmont. He is the official assistant coach for Silver Creek. I would think that he would remember this rule because he's so anal about having only coaches/captains, not players, coach in other games.