Scrimmages
 

Just to get us talking about something other than amalgamations of goaltending and player control fouls…

It’s that time of year again to talk about how scrimmages annoy us and are, in some areas, indentured servitude.

Discuss…


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What irritates me most about scrimmages are the coaches who extend them with unlimited timeouts and the extra quarters or halves, as if we have nowhere else to be that day. It also irritates the f*** out of me when they don't even provide water or some kind of refreshment when we're working for free.

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Then we have the coaches who spend more time complaining about the officiating than using the opportunity to coach their teams and prepare them for the season.

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Scrimmages
 

Well, I mean it’s a dress rehearsal for them, too, right?


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Connecticut Scrimmages ...
 

Here in Connecticut, we used to work scrimmages pretty-much for free (sometimes we got a slice of pizza, or a ham and cheese grinder, or a T-shirt, or ten dollars cash for gas and laundry).

We volunteered for these free scrimmages, with sign up sheets at our preseason meetings, or some schools directly contacted hometown (or alumni) officials. Scrimmages weren't assigned. We could work as many, or as few (even none) scrimmages as we wanted. We could work close to home if we wanted, or we could work where we haven't seen a coach for a while (to demonstrate our skills to that coach, note that coaches vote for state tournament officials here in Connecticut, some might call this ingratiating ourselves to said coaches).

This plan worked out great for basketball officials, nobody complained. Lots of goodwill between athletic directors, coaches, and officials. Basketball officials worked as many, or as few, scrimmages as they wanted, and as close to home, or as far away, as they wanted.

Then the CIAC, our state interscholastic sports governing body, got involved. Unlike basketball, several sports had difficulty getting free officials for scrimmages, especially field hockey and lacrosse.

So the CIAC mandated paid scrimmages in all sports. And they would be assigned by assigners, like regular season games, with Arbiter blocks, assignment fees, the whole nine yards.

Basketball scrimmage fees are set by the CIAC: $150 per scrimmage (3 officials $50 each, 2 officials $75 each). Because three person games are so rare in Connecticut, when three officials are sent (as they usually are) we usually work a two person game and rotate in every period. Assigned officials officiate a maximum six periods, or two hours per scrimmage. If a jamboree, or multiple-team, scrimmage is scheduled, then the fee structure must be agreed upon in advance with the assigner.

A few of our local guys actually liked the old way better, wanting to pick and chose partners, where, when, and how many scrimmages they wanted to work

Here they are all paid. I didn't do any this season anyway. It was still football season for me.


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Catharsis ...
 

C'mon Raymond, tell us what you really think. Don't hold back.

Now, that is the best, witty retort I've seen on this forum in quite a long time. Well done!

Scrimmage Technical Foul ...
 

Several years ago I was requested to work a free scrimmage by my hometown high school (I coached middle school basketball in the school system). I was good friends with the athletic director and the coach. I always blocked off this school's games due to a perceived conflict of interest, so I was always pleased to work these scrimmages because it was my only chance to see my hometown high school team in action, it always having several of my former students on the roster.

The hometown coach invited an out of area team to the scrimmage. The opposing coach was one of his "old school" drinking buddies and the out of area coach started complaining from the get go, implying, but just short of saying, it was a "home job". Imagine that, a "home job" in a scrimmage. I think that there may have been some type of "alpha male" bar bet on the line. This was the closest that I ever came to charging a coach with a scrimmage technical foul, and even possibly ejecting a coach during a scrimmage.

Lots of oral warnings, no written warning back then, eventually calmed him down, but just barely. I had to use every game management tool on my toolbelt, except a technical foul, to get through the game. I may have even said, "Hey coach, don't make me charge you with a technical foul in a scrimmage". As we often say, "Did I regret not charging the technical foul as I drove home?" No, but only because it was just a scrimmage (points not counting for anything) and I knew that a technical foul or an ejection really wouldn't carry any lasting weight, especially with the coach being outside my local assigning area, on top of this being an off-the-books unassigned game.

White #0 Fouled Out Many Times Over ...
 

Most two team scrimmages here consist of two varsity periods, followed by a junior varsity period, followed by two more varsity periods, followed by another junior varsity period.

Also, we have an odd tradition here in Connecticut. No real uniforms in scrimmages. Reversible scrimmage vests over multiple colored undershirts. Often difficult to report numbers, always lots of fouls on White #0.

You got that right. As an independent contractor, I refuse to do them. I’m not working for free.

I have not done a scrimmage for free in well over 10 years.

Peace

I can't remember a time now that a scrimmage went overlong or had coaches yelling at officials here. Thats been the case since the time we started getting paid to do scrimmages.

Scrimmages used to be looked at around here,in the freebie days, as a way to suck up to ADs to get games. Didnt really work for most guys with that attitude. Now its seen as a way to suck up to assigners . See statement about ADs. Better reason to do scrimmages now is you can, depending on your local association, usually get local meeting credit if you did a scrimmage that occurred on a meeting night, which is a win-win really. Credit, get paid, and avoid the sometimes inane rules arguments or rambling speeches by guys waxing poetic about some inane thing they learned at a camp.

I wish I could take that stance, but they are a condition of assignability here.

That said, the assignor appeared to be walking on eggshells this year. Scrimmages are usually self-assignable for six officials, and we’re supposed to take two. Many ended up with four, and some with more than four signed up had excess officials being asked to work somewhere else where few had signed up. On top of that, a few days ago the party line was “All are welcome except no first year officials please, and you can work more than two scrimmages if you want.” By Friday it was, “We’ll take anyone, we’re desperate.”

There are still some officials uncomfortable working in the pandemic, and we’ve had a few that have decided to hang up their whistles for good. So I don’t see how this era of free scrimmage labor can endure much longer here.


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Colour My World (Chicago, 1970) ...
 

Always reminds me why we have (and need) undershirt color rules, especially with a bunch of players jammed close together contesting a rebound, with a foul, or a quick deflection out of bounds.

A little easier to call if there are only two colors above the waists of the players (white on white, and blue on blue), as opposed to several colors above the waists (white on lots of colors, and blue on lots of colors), as we often see in Connecticut scrimmages, especially girls scrimmages.