Table personnel
 

I'm a little bored tonight so what's your worst table nightmare with scorekeeper and timer?

Tuesday got call from AD begging me to fill in for MS boys game that night - someone had called and canceled with family emergency. I agreed to to game. Got there and was on court with my partner for the evening. We look around and only one team there. Visitors late. In fact - got there 5 mins before scheduled tip. Gal on book is putting info in book. Players warming up. After their coach said he was ready to start gal at table finishing up with book. We counted and asked how many names - it worked out right. We toss. found out immediately that timer was not truthful when she said she had done clock lots of times - she had done it for volleyball. After first foul was called and reported I saw home coach for 8th grade at table shaking his head. shortly after I whistled a team foul and went to report. I reported the # and gal shouts over wanting to know why I was telling her numbers. :confused: She had erased all the numbers next to the names because they were "confusing" her. Took an official time out to get all #'s back into book. I won't even start on the timer! :( :eek:

http://www.runemasterstudios.com/gra...es/roflmao.gif


Don't you know that you are supposed to report by names? Don't you know the names of all of the players? :D

Not necessarily a nightmare, but more funny than anything
7th grade girl’s game. I had a score keeper change the arrow on every possession change. If team A had the arrow and then shot and missed and team B got the ball, he would change the arrow. Funniest thing. He would change the arrow about 15 times a minute.

Not a nightmare either, but a Middle School league I work games for has a few annoying table personnel. One school has two ladies who constantly do their nails during the game. They have a whole "kit" that they set out on the table...files, polish, the whole deal. I must say they do a fine job, though (running the table, that is...I'm not so sure about the nails!)

My two stories:

At our MS finale (on the road) the other day, the home team's timer seemed to not know how to administer the AP arrow properly. Since the home scorers were students, I offered to do it, but she said "I got it." She almost never changed it when it needed to be, unless the referee or myself reminded her we had a jump ball or start of quarter.

In the B game, which started off a bit physical and chippy, the referee made a comment to her in the second half (in jest, I hope) not to stop the clock any more. I happned to look up and see the clock running during a substitution in the 4th quarter. But when her team had the ball for an out of bounds throw in, she stopped it. Next time down the floor, we have a sideline throw in and the clock is running. So I asked her "Are you going to stop the clock for us too?"

I should have figured we were in for a long day when the home team's A-team took the floor in blue uniforms (matching almost perfectly with ours).

~~~

A few years back, the juco I was doing stats for had a student scorekeeper that actually got into a verbal argument with an opposing coach. Why? I have no idea. :confused: She was replaced either at halftime of that game or for the second game of the night, never to do the book again for the rest of the year.

For a couple of years, a labor day tournament I was at decided ordering t-shirts with numbers on them was too costly :p So unless teams put numbers on them, or wore tops with numbers, we had to identify players by name during fouls. At one game, when we had the players sign in for their first game, one guy drew a picture of himself with Jheri curls on the scoresheet so I'd know which one was him. :D

I've come pretty close to having those. Just gotta learn to oppose the coach firmly but politely.

MS game, of course. Student scorekeeper. I'd worked there previously in the year, so I knew the kids were okay, but I gave them the instructions before the game anyway. School didn't have a regular arrow, so they used a block of wood with the arrow painted on. Game gets under way, every thing going fine. I called a held ball, looked up, scorekeeper's friend is throwing the block of wood up in the air and catching it! I chased him away.

girls varsity. Scorekeeper talking on cell phone, we tell her to stop. She puts it away. Next foul we look up to see her doing something in her lap. Guess what... I stopped the game and told the AD he needed to discipline her or replace her. Wouldn't do it. We gave her a stern lecture and got underway. After half-time, her boyfriend was there at the table, shall we say distracting her. AD still wouldn't replace her, so we just appointed the visiting scorekeeper as the official book. She was the one who kept making the corrections, anyway.

We haven't had this discussion for a while so why not...ready?

Keep the arrow in your head. This makes it more difficult for the scorekeeper's friend to play catch with that particular block of wood without you noticing. [quote]

I had the same thing happen to me in a JV game. The kids at the table were just that -- kids! Maybe 12 or 13 years old. Arrow got switched every time the ball changed direction. Took me a couple held balls to figure it out.

That's the day I started keeping the arrow myself for every game. Started with a whistle in the pocket; now I remember it in my head.

I keep telling you guys, if you want to really impress the women, use a Hickory Farms beefstick in your pocket to track possession. :eek:

Just don't let Larry Craig see you switch it. http://www.runemasterstudios.com/gra...ges/toetap.gif