Scheduling snafu
 

Well it was bound to happen. In everyone else's eyes, I showed up to the wrong school to ref a game. Fortunately it was underclassmen and all in town. My schedule had changed and everyone knew it except for me. I raced 15 blocks across town to get the 'correct' place and arrived on the floor as the last seconds before the game were ticking off. I obligingly (sp?) warned the coaches I'd be grumpy for a couple of minutes. Any other close calls out there?

I always have the fear that I will do that. Thats why I have my schedule in several places.

Last year I went to the wrong college (they were the visiting team) because I wrote it down wrong. The team they were playing was 2 hours away :eek:. I was hauling a** at 100 mph the entire way there. I got to the college with about 5 minutes left in the 1st half and I jumped on the court during a timeout. Needless to say I was not very happy with myself!

Didn't you confirm the assignment with your partners by phone or email ahead of time?

2 years back I was scheduled for a game at a school I'd never been to. My partner that night was someone I had never worked with, but I knew that he was hearing impaired. I left early to be sure we had time to do a good pre-game so that I'd know what to expect.

Naturally I got lost and got to the site with about 6 minutes on the pre-game clock. Ran in and got changed. Made it to the floor with 3 minutes on the pre-game clock. My partner had captains and coaches ready for our pre-game meeting (he couldn't run it as he is hard to understand in a noisy gym). Ran the meeting, had a brief chat with the partner during player introductions and away we go.

Despite the rushed circumstances, it was one of the best games I worked all year. Partner was in position and managed to communicate well. All my worries were unjustified. It went so well I considered being late to all my games.:D

Last year we had a referee, who somehow managed to go 5 kilometres wrong. He was supposed to end up in my town, and somehow managed to get to the neighbouring town insted! When we called him (we luckily had his cell-phone number) he wondered where the heck we were :o

He was a quarter late (another official who was there called the first qtr insted of him, it was a low grade game anyway).
I have always managed to get things right myself though, yet...