The whistle is a fifty-cent coach's license. With that whistle you are suddenly transformed into an expert, into an authority figure. As soon as I bought my first whistle I spent an hour perfecting my blowing technique. Mind you, if you have a whistle and can't blow it properly it's useless. Following the all-important whistle purchase comes tryouts.
Tryouts are generally tough on the athletes.
Completely out of the blue they are expected to be able to hit a three, nail a bounce pass, and otherwise run around looking like a basketball player. For me tryouts meant that I actually had to run a drill for the first-time in my life. Naturally I deferred to the older, experienced coaches at first, but soon I realized that I was carrying my whistle. That meant I had to use it. At that sound fifty heads looked at me.