Why I love AAU basketball, a work of fiction

[Rich]

So, I'm not an off-season basketball official. I also work baseball and football and work at the varsity level at all three, although I mostly work small college and adult baseball now.

But this weekend I decided to try to expand my 3-person knowledge and attended a camp. The camp ran Friday through Sunday with Friday being the classroom 3-person part mandated by ther state and Saturday being the long day with everyone working 4 games, working the table for 4 games, and being in classroom for 4 games. Got there at 7AM and it wrapped up at 9.

In my four games, I had a coach call me rabbit ears (whack), another blow right through a stop sign and a stern "I hear you" on an obvious player control foul (whack), and a player deciding to use the ball for a purpose other than playing basketball while shouting out an expletive (whack). I also witnessed a player (while working the table) ask an official if he "wanted to go."

While working the clock (it's a hard job I'd never want to do, BTW), I saw kids talk back to "coaches" and heard brilliant timeout discussions where coaches imparted such wisdom as "you gotta get back on defense," "you're dribbling too much," "pass the ball," and "shoot the ball." I didn't see a single play drawn up in four hours. I also heard coaches and teenaged players arguing and players routinely talking back to officials. Lots of technicals.

The camp was good, though, and not a single clinician was an obnoxious jerk, which is a first for me as in my experience there's always one.

I also met an OF lurker there who recognized my name from the forum. He said that he doesn't post anymore because of being called cowardly and unethical in a thread dealing with correctable errors. Unfortunate that new posters get run off by sanctimonius blowhards, but there you have it.

I'm sore, tired, and back to baseball tomorrow. Probably no more hoops until my July camp, but I'll be around lurking, etc.

--Rich