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I've had a couple of situations where the visiting team was extremely late. The first one was because one school had the game scheduled to start an hour later than the other school had. The other time was when a problem arose with the bus they were traveling on.
In both instances, the coaches were able to make contact with each other to let us know what was going on and that they would be there.
Even though it's extremely aggrevating (because we get fined if we're late to a game) to have to wait on the team to arrive, we must remember, we work for the schools.
In todays world, with just about everyone having a cell phone, being able to communicate shouldn't be a problem.
Btw, every instance I've ever had where the visiting team was late, they've always hurried as fast as they could to get dressed, take a few minutes to warm up, and get the game underway. We (officials) have never had to try to speed them up, they already felt bad enough for making us wait.
Also, our contracts with the schools stipulate that we are to wait 30 minutes after the scheduled start time before we can cancel/forfeit the game. However, if during that 30 minute late time, we discover that the team is on the way, we are required to stay and officiate the game.
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