Youth Ball Follies
 

I worked some youth games today -- my first 2-person games since the last time I worked youth ball in mid-November. (44 3-person games in a row since then. I was a bit out of sorts in an odd way -- mostly when I was the T opposite and my partner called a shooting foul and I assumed I was staying where I was cause I was the C opposite. Oh, wait.)

First game -- one of the coaches had been a problem early and we shut him down, but he had used up every kindness, every last chance.

Near the end of the game, this team was down 3 points. I'm the L. They took a shot at a 3 and the ball hit the front of the rim, was knocked around a few times, and then headed out of bounds off this team. Ball was saved OVER the backboard. T properly calls the violation.

About 3 seconds left now, other team to inbound.

Coach screams, "THAT WAS A BAD CALL." In a mostly empty gym, this resonated quite well. I stared in his direction and he sees me looking at him. He ups the ante, louder: "THAT WAS A BAD CALL."

Whack.

2 points and the ball in this league -- no shots. Now a 5 point game and the winning team runs out the clock.

Now the losing coach decides to get his money's worth with us, dropping 2 f-bombs in my direction in the process. A coach of 8th graders, mind you.

All that for $25.

Next youth games....probably November. :D

$25 for wreck league?? Dang!! Lucky [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

I won't walk on a floor for less. That's my personal minimum.

Two complexes here just went to $18/g, normally 6 games per night. For $25/g, I would do it a lot more

$18? Sorry. Not a chance I'd work for that.

If others felt the same way, they'd pay more.

I'm sorry every single time I do it. I wish I were joking.

But no talent clowns like me gotta make extra money somewhere.

The range for youth leagues around here is 25-40 per game, two man. And even it these fees, it isn't worth the time or effort. I am sure there are leagues that pay less than 25 per game, but the only people working those leagues would be strictly rec. league officials.

Man, I need to move. And that is the problem here as well, most of the guys working these leagues are not certified officials.

$25 or more is the rate in our area also!

You can make 40 per game? I need to drive up to Chicago.

20 per game is standard here.

There's an organization around here that pays $25 per game, and we get assigned at least 4 at a time.

In these games, I don't take much crap from the coaches. If they're on our case, they get an early warning from me and a quick T if they keep at it. We don't get paid enough to listen to crap from people who don't know the rules.

I think some of these people volunteer to coach these teams just so that they can act like John Calipari and Fran McCaffery on the sidelines.

Also, some of the partners I've worked with won't take care of business when they need to, IMO. How does that saying go...We permit what we promote?

That said, the vast majority of the coaches I've encountered in these games have been great. The idiocy of the coaches who make complete asses of themselves is what stands out.

If you're working for more $$, must be feeder ball?

I think you reversed the Ps. We PROMOTE what we PERMIT.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes. Yes I did. Thank you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I should also add that where I'm at, for men's rec league, we get 3 games a night at $35 per game. Not bad for 3 hours of babysitting adults.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not bad. I'd sign up for that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

With Apologies To Mr. Grinch ...
 

I wouldn't touch that with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole

Happen to file a report or notify league officials about this guy? Surely that's not what they are looking for in representing their league.... I would like to think there would be a good chance that this kind of behavior would end a coach's season real quick and I know my kid would no longer be playing for him.

Especially knowing that the game itself was officiated well and the coach had no excuse for such surly behavior ;)

You can come to Northern VA too
 

Our youth leagues run anywhere from $26 (Rec, mostly untrained officials) to $42 (CYA, trained officials).

I wouldn't do an unsanctioned game for anything less than $100/hr. I just have no patience or desire to want to babysit adults anymore, or deal with Pat Riley's wannabes at the 5th grade level.

The only AAU summer ball I may do pay at least $25/game and even then I try and limit my off season ball to less than 20 games. This doesn't include anything that may happen at camp if I do go.

Wow, $18 for youth nightmares?! Forget it. I wouldn't even drive by the gym for that much.

Around here, Catholic Youth Organization (CYO, school/parish-type) games pay $30. Even in tiny gyms where 3rd/4th graders play, they pay $25.

More talented/structured intercity teams (5th-8th grade) pay $35.

HS rec leagues featuring kids who can't make the HS team and just want to play pay $25-30.

I often leave all of these games feeling it's absolutely not worth it (for all of the standard reasons regarding fans/coaches), so I can't imagine if the pay were even lower.

Feel for ya, Missouri!

As for leagues/games that use fake officials, I've dropped that. In the modern climate of parents, coaches and players who have no sense of the game, and/or sportsmanship, you absolutely cannot take the risk of using fake officials or those incapable of "taking care of business." You're just asking for trouble. And that's trouble I want no part of. There's already enough out there as it is.

Thanks for the pity y'all. I'm not sure what teams pay here for leagues but maybe it is less than other areas. I don't know. I would like to make more for sure. I don't do adults anymore but that is bc there is only one place that I've ever done it and the long standing partner there is HORRIBLE. And he is always the partner. I almost walked off last time so I'll just not do that anymore.

I don't work off-season basketball. I'd rather stand on a baseball field when it's 90 degrees than run up and down a court for 8 games and barely make anything for it.

I have worked middle school games for that amount. But mostly it is not worth my time or the money. The behavior of the adults is for the birds.

Peace

When I worked baseball I was just the opposite. For one I know my basketball game will not get cancelled. Baseball games might get cancelled based on what happened two days ago. If I am going to leave my house I would like to know I have something I am leaving for.

Peace

I don't do it a lot. Mainly just the Fieldhouse bc it's close to home and the staff there does a decent job. I only work for your dad whenever he gets in a bind. I really don't like adult league. At least with kids, they don't make it such a big deal. I try to do some basketball in summer just to keep a different perspective from constant fast pitch. It has helped keep me from burning out by end of fast pitch in fall.

I can see that about fastpitch softball. I would not want to work travel baseball for an entire summer before the real season started. I would be burnt out by the time the season started.

I'm in no way criticizing anyone who works basketball in the off season. It's just that the school season is long enough, so I'm ready for it to be done by the time March rolls around.

We're around $25 a game here for youth tourneys and wreck league.

As some might recall, this is the first year I've worked adult wreck league. One of the guys that I worked with at the beginning of this year for wreck league gave me advice along the lines of "give it back to them," if they're giving you a hard time. I found this made things worse and gave them license to keep whining. Lately I've just been quick on the T. If that doesn't shut them up, they're gone. Makes things much easier for me, because they are starting to figure out that I don't listen to it. Even if they're just whining about calls, I give them one freebie and after that I'll serve them. I'm over dealing with adults acting like little girls for $25.

Does the variation in your game fee compensation lead you to either "consciously" or "unconsciously" work "harder" or "less harder" when you're officiating a game?

I'd rather do neither.

"work harder?" Not at all, but I will make cuts in how much garbage I take from the bench. I'm more likely to skip to a T, unless I happen to be working on that particular skill set.

If I choose to accept a game, regardless of the fee, I feel like I should work just as hard. If I accept that game, I have essentially agreed to work as hard as any other. But there are a lot of guys who see it differently - lower fee means lower expectations.

They all get my full mental effort, but I'm not going to pretend I run as hard when doing back-to-back run-of-the-mill AAU games as I would for a regular season college game.

Agreed
 

I may bounce a ball across a lane, not switch/rotate with my partner all the time, report a foul outside the box, etc. But, I'm working hard.

This.

And we'll take shortcuts as grunewar mentioned, as well.