The Official Forum

The Official Forum (https://forum.officiating.com/)

- Basketball (https://forum.officiating.com/basketball/)

- - Captains (https://forum.officiating.com/basketball/12066-captains.html)

I put the two numbers together and remember a 4 digit number. I put them in the alphabetical order of the team colors.

So, if my captains are "11 white" and "32 black", my number is "3211". It may sound odd, but it works for me.

As a professional firefighter one of my duties at work is to drive the fire engine (engineer) to the scene of the emergency and/or incident. I always carry a pen with me to write drown the address and/or location of the incident. When I dont have any paper handy I use the palm of my hand to write the address down for quick reference. As a basketball official I carry this over by habit to my games by always carrying a pen inside my referee jacket. During the team captains meeting I write down the numbers of the captain(s) on the palm of my hand and circle the spokesperson. I agree knowing who are your team captains is important. I always want to know and remember my team captains so I can refer to him or her at any moment during the game when I need to address any issues or concerns on the court. Like to know if the player speaking to me is the team captain just in case that player is out of line. I get a surprise look from my partners and coaches because their not uses to seeing an official do that. Food for thought.

[Edited by arthur_b9 on Feb 6th, 2004 at 03:08 PM]

Excellent comment rockyroad. Just by asking the question,
"Who is the captain?" "Get a handle on #23 or I will have to take care of it," is excellent preventive officiating. It really works well in football because you have all the kids in a huddle and the guilty kid will be in the huddle and hear it right in front of his peers and then the good old peer pressure will probably sink in and the problem will fix itself. This is part of my captains meeting. "if I have a concern I will come to you(captains) to help me out and if you have any questions feel free to speak with either official."

Quote:

Originally posted by rockyroad
Chuck - I used to work hard at remembering them also, until I worked a game with a very experienced partner who - when there was a player getting very emotional and "on the edge" - simply called out loudly "Who is my white captain?". The captain came running, thanked my partner for allowing him to deal with it, and then went and talked to the other player...worked pretty well, and got everyone's attention...that's what I do now.

A perfect example of why I love this forum! What a great idea. Thank you Rocky for sharing something you learned from (I assume) another great official and Chuck for the thread start.

I can see me using this from now on.

Quote:

Originally posted by arthur_b9
As a professional firefighter one of my duties at work is to drive the fire engine (engineer) to the scene of the emergency and/or incident. I always carry a pen with me to write drown the address and/or location of the incident. When I dont have any paper handy I use the palm of my hand to write the address down for quick reference. As a basketball official I carry this over by habit to my games by always carrying a pen inside my referee jacket. During the team captains meeting I write down the numbers of the captain(s) on the palm of my hand and circle the spokesperson. I agree knowing who are your team captains is important. I always want to know and remember my team captains so I can refer to him or her at any moment during the game when I need to address any issues or concerns on the court. Like to know if the player speaking to me is the team captain just in case that player is out of line. I get a surprise look from my partners and coaches because their not uses to seeing an official do that. Food to thought.

What do you do when you have games back-to-back, use your other hand? Then how do you remember which hand to use? :)

I'm just kidding, you don't need to answer. I think that's a really odd way to do it, but whatever works for you. I haven't seen anyone write on their hand since high school.

Quote:

Good one, dj!
Thanks for sharing.
mick

Thank you, Chuck for the excellent question you raised. I agree with Ron Pilo its an important procedural process of the game. During this meeting we are identifying essential roles we all play in this contest. We are exchanging very important information and setting firm that the number one priority for everyone involved in this contest is sportsmanship. I personally take a great effort to discipline myself to remember who are the floor captains mentally or visually and encourage you to continue the effort. Sometime I succeed and sometime I fail. Chuck, we have shared with you several ways to remember your floor captains. I shared that I use another tool by writing the captains numbers on the palm of my hand to help me visually remember. During the course of the game if we need to address any issues that arise to the captains I can quickly look at my palm and identify and share with my partner(s) who are the captains. If I have back-to-back games I line out the captains of the first game and do it again for our next game using the same hand. Is this an odd way of attempting to remember the team captains? Yes and No. Try it out and see for yourself. Again! I agree with Ron P. No matter how they were selected. The coaches and captains appreciate seeing you take the time to respect, identify and acknowledge the responsibility they have been given in assisting the officials in fulfilling the number one priority. In my next assigned game Im going to use half of a 5 x 7 card to write my numbers down then make note of it on the scorebook as usual and put it in my front pocket. In most cases as mention you rarely need this information during the course of the game, but its there and available when you do need it quickly. Keep up the effort in finding a trick that works for you.

[Edited by arthur_b9 on Feb 6th, 2004 at 03:05 PM]