[26 Year Gap]

[QUOTE=Mwanr1]I’m rather new as an official myself. I hope my advice will help

When making a foul call, reporting a foul, in bounding the ball, and issuing for free throws, takes your time! Make sure you and your partners are aware of the foul and/or violation and are both on the same page. I am aware most middle school games often use the 20-mins running halves format except for the last 2 minutes of the game unless a 15+ or 20+ lead. Don't get caught up worrying about the running clock. It is important to remember that 5-10 seconds extra you take will usually not have a big effect to the game. However, if you rush through it, that 3-5 seconds u saved can give you hours of headache later on.

Slow down and make sure things are in control before issuing the ball for play. If you call a total of 15 fouls and you take an extra 5 seconds each per call, you are only using 75 extra seconds. That’s only 1 min and 15 seconds extra of running time. No one will pay attention to that lost time. But if you rush into things and screw up on one big play, you can potentially lose minutes in correcting the error and hours of writing a report to your supervisor. SO REMEMBER: SLOW DOWN, STAY POISE, SMILE AND HAVE FUN![/QUOTE]
This is good advice. There is a guy in my area who started when I did and he seems to have a permanent scowl.