An Interesting Friday Night

[A Pennsylvania Coach]

Warning: tl;dr

Two games, JH JV (aka 8th grade) girls at 4:00 on one side of the county, HS JV girls at 6:30 on the other side.

JH JV game is sloppy all the way through. I have an intentional foul in the first two minutes (two-handed shove from behind on breakaway layup attempt), three fouls on the same player in a two-minute stretch (just pushing everybody) (and the first of the fouls was a double foul), and a T (sub went straight on to the court from the bench during a live ball), all in the first half.

Back in the car at 5:10 for what should be a 20- or 25-minute drive, mostly highway. Make it within three exits of the school when I hit a major jam. Near where I work so I know the area a little bit. I jump off and try to go up a parallel two-lane road that is bad as well, so I work my way back on to the highway one exit up. I get on but quickly find out we are basically stopped. Call my partner and he is stuck on the parallel road a ways back. I have no number for anyone at the game site, and it is now 6:00. I scoot up the shoulder to a point about a half-mile from the next exit but we're all but stopped, moving 100 feet or so every minute or two. Get on the blackberry and find out the highway is closed past the next exit, so it is everybody getting off. Then I get a call from a varsity guy who had the night off but is at the game (his wife is the home JV coach.) He asks how I'm doing and when I think I'll get there. With his help I get a shortcut from the next exit, provided I can get to it. It is 6:20 and I guess 7:00. He says the visitors haven't arrived yet either, but they show up while we are still on the phone.

At 7 he calls me and tells me he went home (he lives in that town) and suited up, and he was going to go start the game solo at about 7:10. I was a few hundred feet from the exit so I was looking at 7:25 or so. My partner was still way behind. I finally get there and it is midway through the second quarter, already 35-12 visitors. One of that night's varsity guys is on the court along with the guy who called me. I jump in for the varsity guy and we finish up the half. At the half my fill-in partner calls my partner and tells him to give up and go home; that he would finish the game. I ask the varsity guy how much a-quarter-and-a-half would cost me but he said gratis.

We get it done without too much complaining from the home coach (remember, it was my fill-in partner's wife!) and after our game in the officials' room I ask the varsity guys if they have any feedback or advice from me. One of them says nothing for me, but they have a laundry list for my partner who was slumming in the JV, all in good fun.

I plan to stay through varsity halftime, and it was already about 45-12 at the break, and I found out the visitors had a player 5 points from 1,000. I stayed a little more until it was evident she was going to save the 1,000th point for their next game at home. I did get to spend all that time picking the brain of my fill-in partner, which was good.

Cliffs Notes:
Called an intentional, double, and technical foul in the same JH JV game. Got stuck in traffic and took 2 hours plus to go 20 miles for my HS JV game. Missed 1 1/2 quarters and still got a full-game check!