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Last week I worked the Super 64 with Coast to Coast, and this week there's another tournament here in Vegas, called the National Youth Basketball Championships (I believe it's sponsored by Nike, but not as big as Main Event), which is also NCAA sanctioned, but not nearly as many college coaches in attendance.
Anyhow, I had a situation similar to the one described today, in which none of the coaches on one team were NCAA certified, so the tournament director informed us that there would be no active coaches on the bench, but they'd be supervised. I was dubious, but agreed to play. Big mistake, the coaches were behaving like fans sitting behind the bench, and since nobody was technically in charge of the bench, it made managing the game tough, especially when people started fouling out early because they were kept in the game. Eventually, the coach of the other team and some players started saying that the coaches were being derogotory to some of the opposing players. Eventually the head coach from the stands got so frustrated at one of his players that he walked onto the bench and picked up a chair, so I dumped him right there, and we got done. It was the first time I've ever considered clearing the gym. I will never, never again work a game with no active coach on the bench with youths playing, and from a liability standpoint, I think I was crazy to do it to begin with.
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