I have a few stories about coaches or officials and comments made in the heat of action.

A coach I always appreciated was Jim (can’t remember his last name), from Coleman.

He was a good coach, always dressed in a coat and tie for games, and was just a nice guy.

It was before the advent of the possession arrow. Any held ball resulted in a jump ball. It was a jump ball in the center circle. I was doing the tossing.

I digress here to clarify the rule on “over and back”: To be in the front court and be liable for an over and back violation, three points, two feet and the ball must have advanced into the front court before an over and back violation is called. If only one foot is in the front court, the player is considered to not have advanced and not in danger of an over and back violation.

Back to the play.

I tossed the jump ball and it was tipped out of the center circle, hit a player, and ricocheted right back into the hands of one of the jumpers. He was standing with one foot on each side of the centerline. He started to pivot back and forth, moving his non-pivot foot from one side of the centerline to the other.

I was still in the center circle (I had no chance to vacate) and could not remember which direction the player with the ball was going. If he was going one way, he was legal, if the other way, he had an over and back violation.

I decided he was legal and didn’t blow my whistle, but a coach was screaming “over and back” over and over again.

Post-game, as I was dressing after my shower, Coach Jim was still there.

I asked him if he remembered the play and, if so, whether I was correct.

He laughed and said, “Yes, I remember, and yes, you called it correctly. I was trying really hard to get you to call over and back, but you wouldn’t listen.”

Another coach with a quick comment intended to influence me came in a game in Farwell.

The game was in overtime. Farwell was taking the ball out of bounds, with the length of the court to go against a full-court press.

The passer made a long, football-type pass to a running teammate, almost to center court. The kid caught the pass, looking backward while running at full speed. He turned toward his basket and just started to dribble when he collided with a defensive player who was in perfect defensive position.

It was a violent collision and both players were injured.

I was in multitask action. I was blowing my whistle to stop the play, had my fist in the air to indicate a foul, and was motioning both coaches to come on the floor to attend to their injured players.

The Farwell coach got to his player, looked at me, and said, “My player is hurt. I don’t think he will be able to shoot the free throws.”

That stopped me in my tracks, and, luckily, my brain was working, because I was able to reply to the coach, “That won’t be a problem, coach. That was a player control foul on your player, so there won’t be any free throws.”

He almost had me.

My fondest memory ever from a basketball game happened at Valley Lutheran in Saginaw.

They had a good team and were playing Flint Academy, who also was very good.

As a side note, the Flint team was coached by Cliff Turner, who played at Hillsdale College (I actually played in a game against him in a Hillsdale County adult league after he had graduated) and he was the father of Eric Turner, who starred at the University of Michigan.

It was a very close, high-scoring, game.

I don’t remember who won, but I do remember an event after the game.

Valley Lutheran had a private room exclusively for officials, with lockers, toilet, and shower.

My partner, Mike Lutenske, and I left the gym and entered the room. We looked at each other, shook hands, and congratulated ourselves on doing a great job in a close, exciting game.

We had no more than sat down when the door of the official’s room burst open and both coaches came rushing in, side by side, to tell us what a great job we did.

Wow, what a great experience.

Les Miller, of Hubbard Lake, has retired after 53 years officiating multiple sports around Michigan. He can be reached at theoldref@yahoo.com.