[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I do not know about other states but in Ohio and Michigan the 7th and 8th grade teams practice every night afterschool except on days when they have games and those practices usually run from 1-1/2 to 2 hours long. One hour out of their entire season of practice is not too much. If we want to be treated as professional then we have to treat our avocation as a profession. I just officiated a girls' jr. H.S. basketball DH last night and the coaches from both teams had not bothered to teach their teams any of the fundamental rules of the game:

1: One and one free throws.

2: How to line up for free throws.

3: When Team A scores a field goal, Team B inbounds the
ball along the endline under Team A' basket.

4: When an official blows his whistle, all of the players
are to look and listen to that official for information
as to what is going to happen next.

What is even worse is that I have had teams at the varsity level call a timeout and then when the timeout is over come to me and ask which team is going to get the ball for the throw-in.

As Fred Horgan, as Past-President of IAABO and Canada's represetative to FIBA, once said, basketball officials are the keepers of the game. And it is our duty to educate coaches, players, the media, and sometimes parents and fans about the rules of the game. Fifteen minutes cannot begin to do justice to what we can and need to give to the young basketball players that we see every year. If a coach wants to give me only 15 min. then he is telling me that he really does not think what we officials have to say is very important.