Worked two girls games today.
One 3rd was third grade, and one was 4th grade.
We let some travels slide.
We ignored 3 seconds.
We let them stand a little closer for free throws.
There was no 3point shot.
Winners jumped and laughed and got medals with a ribbon to hang around their necks.
Some of the losers cried and got medals with a ribbon to hang around their necks.

No more games scheduled.
mick
<HR>
My two favorite equipment purchases this year were the Fox CMG and the McDavid InteraWear sleeveless black "V".

I wear that InterraWear black V under my less than wonderful polyester, or I wear an InterraWear striped shirt alone. I prefer the striped shirt alone. Do you prefer the undershirt plus?

I love this level of ball, and I"ve divided the travels up into five categories, all of which, except the last, are ignorable unless they confer significant advantage.

1) The "Oo, oo, I Got the Ball!!" travel

2) The "I'm Supposed to Pass, Where's the Point Guard?" travel

3) The "Winding Down After a Great Drive" stutter step

4) The "I Have Absolutely No Clue What I'm Doing" wander
aka the "We're 40 Points Behind, and the Ref Hasn't Called this Yet" shuffle

and last, but not least,

5) The "This Defender is So Annoying!" two-step (this involves pivoting 180 degrees to the left, then changing pivot feet, and pivoting 180 degrees to the right). If there are elbows involved in this one, I'll call the elbow.

Love this thread
 

To those of you who have posted so far, or have similar sentiments: Thank you for everything you give to the kids.

one of my favorite moments this year -- 4th grade girls - this pint-size girl gets surrounded in the lane by 3 taller girls and she assumes the usual "standing fetal position" to protect the ball....her coach hollers out to her: "pass it Jenny" and all you hear next is a squeaky yell back: "I cannnnn'tttttt"
you had to be there, but it was priceless

Some of the memories I have when I used to referee our grade school's grade 2-3 co-ed intramural games:

* 10 players all within 3 feet of the ball for the entire 16 minutes (we played 4 minute quarters).

* All the double/triple/quadruple dribbles and countless travels when players realize there is no one open to pass it to.

* Having second graders shoot free throws from the bottom of the circle and third graders shooting between the bottom and the regulation foul line.

* Players bouncing back from collisions with each other as if nothing happened.

And most of all:

* The fun the kids had, regardless of what numbers were on the scoreboard.

Juulie works my rec league and we have a no zone rule for 3rd and 4th grade. I was training some young refs earlier this season and one coach was complaining that a defender kept running around the court and wasn't guarding anyone. He called out "That's a zone, ref." I told him it wasn't a "zone", but a "bewilderment".

That's all the fun stuff - here's the other side...last weekend, my 5th grade son's team won their game on a last few seconds shot (about 8 sec. left, but other team never got a shot off)...as our kids are celebrating, several parents from the other team charged onto the court to yell at the referee (one-man) and our coach because they (of course) "cheated"...one of these parents - a mother - had to go thru my 11 year-old-son to get to the ref, so she did, knocking my son to the ground and stepping on him...luckily, I was out of town at a tournament, otherwise I would probably be writing this post from jail right now...anyway, after phone conferences with the league officials, that mother has been banned from the games the rest of the season and is supposed to write my son a letter of apology - ain't holding my breath...my son has a much better attitude about it than me - he said "I think she just got going in one direction and couldn't change fast enough." Thank God one of us is even-tempered!

These are some great stories. I have one from a year ago. NCAA Women's. Girl turns her ankle, goes down. Her teammates pick her up and was carrying off. In a half pouting, half crying voice says "oh, I'm so fat". Everyone got a laugh.

One of my favorites came from a 6th grade girls game. One of the players came over to me and said, pouting, "Could you watch number 4 on the other team? She's not being very nice to me."

I told her I didn't know what the signal was for that.

We've had moments like that here when we do games for that age. Had one game a week ago, 5th grade boys, where a kid put up a last second shot at the end of the 3rd quarter, and kid from the other team tried to call timeout with 0.2 seconds left. Horn went off, and he looked at my partner and said, never mind! We both busted out laughing about that one!

I get it. This is a math problem. Where are the other two thirds? :D

They are on a train that left Los Angeles at 8:53 a.m. traveling at 72 mph... :D

I fergit, but possible 'splanations are:
<LI> Of the last three games, I worked two.
<LI> The 4th graders were twice as tall as the third graders.
<LI> Twice as many flagrant technicals were called in the 4th grade.
<LI> I don't right good.
left-handed mick

3rd grade girls: One little girl dribbled the ball off her foot and it went rolling away from her. One of my players ran after the ball, picked it up, and ran with it back to the original girl. As she handed it over to the other girl she said "Here, you lost it. Try to be more careful next time."

We all had a great big set of grins over that one, but in the next practice I told all the girls to think that the ball was their favorite Beanie Baby. Anytime somebody from the other team had their Beanie, they were going to steal it and take it home.