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…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

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.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Scrimmages
 

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


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

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.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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.

Insult Me Correctly Please ...
 

Should read inane rules arguments AND rambling speeches.

And it's A specific little corner of Connecticut, not some, as any one of each of the four corners, more if one counts the little elbows as corners.

Of course I know of an esteemed Forum poster who always posts long rambling speeches (I knew Dr. Naismith, Blah, Blah, Blah, Yada, Yada, Yada) from a little corner of Toledo, Ohio.

Hint: His initials are Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.T...=0&w=300&h=300

One could rewrite it that way of one didn't want to make sure the reader got the point. The redundancy is on purpose.

Not Me ...
 

Might be a poster from any of the little Connecticut corners, not just my little corner. Might be a poster that only posts inane rules arguments, or it might be a poster that only posts rambling speeches. It might not be me.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/LYMAA...ouo/s-l400.jpg

On the one hand, I understand why teams pay less for scrimmages (or even nothing) than real games. It's a dress rehearsal for the regular season games they will later play.

On the other hand, it is really annoying how unseriously teams take the officials at scrimmages. They expect the officials to just go along with whatever they want, when it's not that way in the regular season. The thing that really grinds my gears is the non-standard rules many scrimmages are played by. Deleting the score, resetting fouls at the quarters, and in one private school scrimmage I did a few days ago, an automatic bonus situation with 45 seconds left in each period. All this nonsense makes it difficult to figure out what is actually in play and what isn't, not to mention the irregular uniforms making it difficult to identify players. I appreciate working a scrimmage or two to get practice, but not when you're required to do them for free. Maybe offer some incentive (i.e. have the scrimmages serve as an extra training/evaluation opportunity).

We had 12+ technical fouls from all scrimmages and in one a coach actually getting 2 and ran IN A SCRIMMAGE:eek:

Sometimes flexibility is important in officiating. When I do a scrimmage (and I do more in football than basketball and they are always paid), it's not my show, it's a practice involving two or more schools. The teams can do whatever they want, far as I'm concerned.

What I did learn from a HoF official who's since passed who was a mentor in my early days is this -- you don't call technical fouls or warn coaches in the scrimmages other than tell them to knock it off or you're going to the house. ESPECIALLY if they're free. That said, in my area, nobody says anything during scrimmages.

Unintended Consequence For Me ...
 

As do I. Back when we were working free scrimmages (that many didn't want to work), I could work as many as I thought I needed to get ready for the season. Since we started getting paid, everybody wants in on the money, I seldom get as many assigned as I think that I need to get ready for the season.

Most years just one is assigned. One year the only scrimmage I did was a girls scrimmage. My first "real" game of the season was a boys game, and I didn't feel ready for the physicality, rapid pace, and above the rim action. Not being an offseason (AAU) guy, it was the first boys game I had worked in nine months. I was like a "deer in headlights" the first few minutes.

Coaches Hardly Complain ...
 

Same here (with one exception from an out or area coach for me). Coaches are normally too busy in a scrimmage worrying about possible starters, possible off the bench players, who's varsity, who's junior varsity, who's freshman, who plays well together, who doesn't, what old plays, or new plays, are working, etc., to worry about the officiating. We even use our rookie mechanics training classes in a few varsity scrimmages and coaches hardly complain.

Why would you care? This is practice. How they keep score or if they keep score means nothing. The result is not real or even not based on anything but often shows the school and the coaches what they might look like. I had a scrimmage last week where no fans were present and we just blew the whistle. We were done in like 45 minutes. And yes, we got paid. Sign me up for that all day.

BTW, I live in Indiana and they have a set kind of scrimmage format to follow. They play games against other teams, but they have to do certain things like play zone or man to man during certain periods. And even have a format if you shoot free throws or not. The state I guess sets a standard and the schools choose a few options to follow. And we get paid for these. Fans from both schools and everything. ;)

Peace

It's Their Show, We're Just There To Blow The Whistle ...
 

Agree with JRutledge. We're only there to blow the whistle for out of bounds, other violations, and fouls to keep the game moving in a semi-normal fashion.

Although it varies from school to school here, most scrimmages don't keep track of team fouls, thus, no one and one. Some will only shoot one shot for two shot fouls, teams don't need officials to practice free throws.

Unless we are training new officials, we dont even bother reporting fouls in scrimmages.

The teams dont really need us there other than to get them the feel of how officials are going to call fouls and and violations.

Dress Rehearsal ...
 

After nine months without working a game, it's a dress rehearsal for me as well as the teams. I always report, even if the players aren't wearing numbers (it's always zero). If my partners don't want to report, so be it. If my partners don't want to switch, so be it. I'll just report and not force a switch.

If I sound like a tight-ass, you'd be surprised that I ignore fashion police issues (although I do mention them to players and coaches ("When the season starts ..."), except safety issues, like jewelry.

https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.9...=0&w=207&h=164

Scrimmage Fees Increased In Connecticut ...
 

Just got this email today:

Scrimmage Policy – the revised Scrimmage Policy is posted to the website. The Executive Committee (EC) increased the scrimmage fee for next season from $150 to $240 for three assigned officials and for years 2025 thru 2028 to $330. The policy will be e-mailed to school Athletic Directors.

A 60% increase!