[Rich]

Originally Posted by A Pennsylvania Coach

Girls' tripleheader yesterday: 8th grade at 4 PM, 7th grade at 5 PM, JV at 6:30. Assignor needed me to then go to do men's rec at 8:30 and 9:30 about 20 miles away. Three smooth school games, then the 20-mile drive took about 45 minutes thanks to snow that had started falling. That sets the stage appropriately.

Guy in the first game drops an f-bomb, but just at himself. Men's rec so I'm usually letting that go unless it is loud enough for any fans to hear, so I pass. Guy from the rec association at the table tells me that it is a "no swearing" league, and that I should "T" that up. At the next timeout, I talk a little more with him and agree to enforce their rule going forward.

First game is close but played well-enough and we finish without incident. Second game starts late because a couple blue players are running late, due to the weather I guess. They get five guys there and we start. Blue #3 is running his mouth early on and I give him a stop sign and a "that's enough". Two minutes later he thinks he got fouled and looks at me and yells "Jesus!" so I pin him.

Then with 20 seconds left in the first half, after another "missed" call, he runs by me and says "you are awful!" So I run him. As he walks by me, he whispers "and you're an ***, too" but I let that one go. He goes to the bench, takes his sweet time gathering up his stuff as we wait. As he walks back across the court he yells "you need to go back to school" so I Teddy Valentine him. We shoot the four FTs and now he is sitting on the opposite side changing his clothes very slowly. I wait about a minute then tell blue he has two minutes to leave or it is a forfeit. They rush him out of there.

Of course, blue has only four guys left, and they get waxed by 40. (They were losing by 15 or 20 when I tossed the loudmouth.) The game was much, much better with him gone however. Not a peep out of anyone.

Thanks for my regular reminder why I don't work these games anymore.