AAU Fun.

[JRutledge]

Had a great one today. I had great AAU experience today. Got up early in the morning 9:00AM and an hour away to have a fun one.

I had four games in a AAU Regional of some kind. Four games that led up to the Championship game. I did this with a friend of mine that I normally work with in the HS season. He assigned the tournament so I did him a favor.

Well it all started with the first game. We had some kids working the book and as you most definitely know, they of course were not paying that much attention. We had a couple of situations where I reported some fouls and many minutes later the table tells me that they were not in the game, or not in the book. Well the losing coach of this game was not happy at all. Well it does not help that you get blow out by 40, but that is another story. Well after the couple of situations I had problems with the book, this coach went on an on about "my" mistake. He would not let it go so my partner T'd him up one time. About 2 or 3 minutes later the next one came. I found the whole thing funny because when I do these games I take them for what they are worth. This is something that means nothing in the bigger picture. The kids get an opportunity to play the game, but it is not life or death to me at all. You do not deal with "regular" coaches or people that "really" know the game. We are dealing with what one of my football crew members call "weekend warriors." Even thought that term is about officials, but it applies to AAU coaches most of the time.

The fun then just started right after the game. My partner and I went to a far corner where if anyone was going to talk to us, they would really have go out of their way to say anything to us. We were standing in the other direction of the door. Two coaches (really I cannot find a better word ) came up to us. My partner is a cop by the way and the "coaches" tried to "explain" themselves and their attitudes about me. So after a couple of minutes when the conversation was going no where he said, my partner was trying to end the conversation after it was getting personal.

After that the other games went on without incident. And the semifinal and Championship games where competetive and fun. Just another day in the life in AAU Basketball.

Peace