[M&M Guy]

One of the most important parts of our game, as officials, should be communication. Working NCAA-W, they have constantly reminded us that we need to signal and verbalize between partners, and I've tried to incorporate a lot of these ideas into my HS game as well. For example, the proper procedure on a violation is, stop clock, signal, direction, throw-in spot. We are told to verbalize things with our partners, such as, "Throw-in spot is right here, Tom", as we leave to go to our new spot. If there's a TO, we should all know as a crew where the ball is to be put in play even before the TO is reported to the table. If my partner has a shooting foul, I will try to tell them, "I've got your shooter, Tom" before they go report to the table. Before we shoot FT's, all three members of the crew will signal whether it's 1, 2, or 3 shots, so there are no mis-understandings and corectable error situations. When I call a foul, I usually verbalize as well, "White, 23, 2 shots". This way my partners will know what's going on rather than looking at each other wondering while I wander to the table.

I tend to verbalize quite a bit during a game, mostly to communicate to my partners and the table. Of course, there's the occasional communication with a player, coach, cheerleader, etc....