Tale of a Drafted Clock Operator.....

[eyezen]

I was the timer and scoreboard operator at the local high school for ~4 years. This is what got me the itch to try refereeing. Looked like fun at the time. Its all about attention to detail.

I am also still the clock guy at home football games. When the school first installed play clocks they hired a guy to just run them (at the same pay of course) That first year was the only year we had two of us. My elbow was raw from all the nudging to start the damn thing. Guy just couldn't pay attention

So I practiced doing all three (clock, play clock, down/distance/LOS) during lower level games. The next year and ever since I've been by myself. The PA guy does his job by himself sans spotters and does a mighty fine job as well.

[26 Year Gap]

At my old high school in Maine, the JV officials were scorer & timer for the varsity game. I cannot remember if the varsity officials did duty for the JV game, but I don't think so. We got paid extra to do it. I liked being scorer more than I liked being timer. Mostly because your goof-ups could be easily fixed without the whole crowd noticing. But we used to have the foul towers at the table, so if someone fouled out, we got to be very dramatic as we lit them all up one by one.