Man, I can feel the love exuding from this post! I do HS bball and HS and college softball here in WV. At one point I wanted to get into the D2 conference for bball but have since changed my mind. I have many fellow officials who do and they DO have to get off of work at 1 or 2 in the afternoon to make it to a school by 5:30 or so. Some work in other conferences and actually have to take a day off to get to thier games - I'm not interested in that.
As far as 3103 goes - I think his/her communication skills are lacking for certain. But his point of clock awareness I think is valid. I do work with a lot of D1 and D2 officials and have learned to have clock awareness during a game. If a coach calls time (especially at the end of a game) - I try to look at the clock as I blow my whistle - just a glance. If you aren't watching the clock, how do you know it has started or stopped? Looking at the clock IS important. I showed up at a game this year and watched the JV game before mine. I noticed the guy keeping the clock was stopping the clock on a made basket (must have thought he was in the NBA) and the JV officials were oblivious to it. (Of course I said something to one of them during a timeout because the game was going on and on and on. . .) I made sure during pregame to correct him as well. Bottom line is whether we do it or not, keeping track of the clock is a good habit to pick up. Are you telling me you ONLY watch the players?? You NEVER see that good-looking mother in the 8th row of the 3rd section?
We all do things and pick up things to improve. That's something that I've picked up and it gives me a better game awareness.