Working on a Small Court

[Hartsy]

Any tips from folks who have worked a lot of games on small courts or those with very little room OOB?

I have a few middle school games booked for an old gym with a very small court and a low balcony section that extends almost to the boundary plane all the way around. It's like something out of "Hoosiers". I've worked there before and had a tough time getting confortable and felt I was always out of position.

They used to play high school games on this court. I can't imagine what it would look like if they tried that today.

[refnrev]

Do they have the restraining lines? That helps tremendously. If not, you have to move the defenders back in the throw ins and do the best you can.

[Scrapper1]

I've done these. You're always going to be in the way as the Lead because you simply can't ever get completely out of bounds. And forget about going ballside, because you'd have to weave through the players in the lane. So make sure your Trail official helps out a lot on the post play opposite the Lead.

[jdw3018]

I've had the "privilege" to work a lot of small courts during my time in Kansas. Lots of JV games there are played in the "second gym" at the high school, which typically is the original high school gym and may be very, very small. I've had the balcony as you describe. I've had the balcony actually a few feet out onto the court. I've had courts where you couldn't actually stand outside the 3-point line on the sidelines.

Smallest court ever was one from back in my playing days - the court was so small that the boundary lines intersected the 3-point line at about the free throw line extended, and we had the double-backcourt lines that were at the top of the keys. The baskets were actually nailed to the balconies. Really hard to get much space there.

Toughest court to officiate in my experience was a full-sized court, but it was basically a hockey rink - the sideline was about 4 inches thick, and the outside of that line was a half wall. The benches were behind that wall, and there was a door, just like with hockey, for getting to and from the bench. Needless to say, nowhere to go as an official if you got caught on the sideline during a transition. (This school just got a new gym in the last couple years.)

All that said, you simply do the best you can. Work for the best angles you can get, but I always tend to stay higher at center, as you can get caught below someone pretty easy w/o much place to go. If the court is actually smaller than usual, you have to work extra hard during games on movement, because there's going to be more "pack" contact, because everyone is in such a tight space.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.