flying solo and loving it

[cdaref]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

Hoped you worked from FT line to FT line and no further. I've worked tons of games solo and that's what I do. Although I do switch sides, I try to work most of the game on the side away from the coaches. It makes for a much more pleasant experience.

Luckily I havent had to do this in a few years. And then only one occasion but in back to backs (tired!). My partner showed up at half of the second game. Nice.

Strangely, we had just discussed how to handle solo officiating at an offical's meeting a week or so before it happened to me. A senior official was explaining that there are two schools of thought on this. One, as you said, work most of the game away from the coaches FT to FT. Two, work as much as possible on teh same side as the coaches so you see what they see.

So I tried them both out. I think I actually prefered being on the coaches side. But I've only done it once each way. I guess I can see the logic in both approaches. Had I had coaches who were less cool than the ones I had I probably would have worked away from them but these coaches were both (surprisingly) cool about it.

I was wondering why you fall clearly in the "work away" camp, if you dont mind spelling out your philosophy for me on this. It hasnt happened to me in a few years so I havent had to think about it in a long time.