Is half a book better than none.

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally Posted by Stat-Man

Only in middle school could this happen(?)

There is a middle school in our league that for some reason keeps a running score for its own team only and nothing for the visitors. Last year during the boy's season, I ended up being designated official scorer because of it when we played there. I'm expecting the same this year since we visit them for a girls game on Friday.

Anybody else ever seen anything this unusual as a referee?

Unusual? Never have. Equally useless, but rooted in incompetence? Sadly, yes.

9th grade game, played at a middle school (could this be the tie that binds?). Before starting the second half, the clock operator told us he didn't know how to reset the team fouls on the scoreboard. So, we soldiered on without accurate team fouls on the board. Somewhere in the 3rd quarter I asked the book how many team fouls we had. He looked at me like I was from another planet. He wasn't keeping track of fouls. At all.

I'd have to go dig back in my journal to find it, but there was a whole litany of stuff like this we discovered as the game went on. A comedy of errors, but it wasn't really funny.

That was the day I learned that a Jr. High scorekeeper/clock operator will always answer yes to the question, "So, you know how to do this, right?" I don't even bother with "trust but verify." I now assume they are lying and proceed accordingly.