[Mark Padgett]

Last night - 7th grade boys. A1 at the line to shoot one. He dribbles, holds the ball, dribbles, holds the ball, looks at the hoop, dribbles, etc. My partner, who is trail, is not counting as usual and it seems to me the kid took at least 15 seconds before shooting. At the break, my partner and I discuss it and we agree if he does it again, we'll say something to him.

Of course, in the next quarter, it happens again. This time I am trail. I tell him he needs to shoot the ball within 10 seconds of receiving the ball. He nods. At halftime, my partner mentions it to his coach. The coach says he'll talk to the kid, too.

Yup, you guessed it. Beginning of Q4, he's at the line again and doing the same thing. I'm trail and this time I'm doing a visible count. I get to 10 and he's still dribbling. I slowly blow my whistle and announce a 10 second violation. It was the first of a one and one and his team loses the ball.

Not only was there no comment to us from that coach, but the coach actually yelled, "Taylor (the kid's name) - we talked about this and you promised me you knew how to count to 10!"

That brought out a good laugh.

I thought back over the past 100 years (which was a real struggle) and can't remember ever calling this before.