|
I just got back from working a middle school tournament. The last 3 years I've told myself that I would stop working them, but then every year I get sucked in on a afternoon when I have nothing else to do, so I might as well be making money. I think the main problem is that at that level coaches and parents don't understand that it is a middle school game. Today I had to have a fan talked to and T up a coach for just stupid things. Coach had been complaining all half. My P had a foul on the baseline, coach says right beside me, twice, that just an awful call terrible, just like the rest. Then he looks at me in shock when I T him up. Of course soon after, I see him standing during a full possesion again. I politely tell him he needed to sit. He does and of course gets up again. I would have been more than justified in giving him his second, but this was a booster club tourney, it would have made the game more of a mess than it already was, and it was obvious he didn't know the rules so I politely asked him to sit again. He tells me, "you already told me that" to which I explain that I'm trying to help you because if you are up, by rule I should give him a second T and eject him. This touched home and he finally sat. They just don't seem to understand that the game is much different at that level that it is at the high school level or above. Sorry, I was venting a little there and got off track. As with any level, there are going to be your good nights and bad, it just seems like there's more bad ones at the lower levels.
|