Coaches Biggest Problem With New Rules ...

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by johnny d

You guys were and continue to be fools.

A good result of the change to board assigned scrimmages for a fee is that I'm no longer the "go to guy" to recruit and organize local officials for my hometown high school boys and girls scrimmages.

As a teacher in the school system, and as a basketball coach in school system, and as an official living in town, with children playing interscholastic sports in the school system, I was always asked to get officials for both the boys and girls programs at the high school. Most of this took place before the common use of email.

I never had a problem being asked to organize the officials, or getting officials to volunteer for the games (we all viewed it as providing a service to our home town high school, and an opportunity to get ready for the season, without having to travel very far, it was never viewed as a burden), as long as things went smoothly. By smoothly, I mean the two head coaches, or the athletic director, call me with their "home" scrimmage dates, I make few phone calls, fill the slots, and I'm done.

But it never seemed to go smoothly. Invariably, scrimmages based on nothing more than a handshake between coaches, would get canceled, or postponed, and it would be up to me to call the scheduled volunteers and to reschedule them, or add new officials if the original officials weren't available for the rescheduled dates. Today, with modern email, it wouldn't be as big a problem, but back then I spent a lot of time on the phone.

That gave me a very small taste of what is was like to be an assigner, and it was a very bitter taste.

God bless all you Forum members who are assigners. Whether you do it for big bucks, little bucks, or no bucks (assign your local recreation games to give you first crack at the games), you don't get paid enough as far as I'm concerned.

I wake up on a beautiful snowy morning and say, "I'm lucky to live here in New England", while you assigners wake up on such a morning and say, "Oh shit".