Did two girls JV games tonight, here in Oregon, with one of the teams from Washington where the girls use a shot clock. This spring league is based on Oregon rules which are strictly NFHS, with 10-second backcourt, and 5-second closely guarded on the hold and the dribble. The coach asked about all this before the game started, which I thought was a good sign. Silly me!

I called them on the 5-second once in the first game, with no problem. But then in the second game, (same Washington team with a different opponent) I called it once in the second quarter, with some protests from the coach, and then once again in the third quarter, with the coach turning into a howler monkey. His protest was that there was no way that was 6'. It was actually about 4-1/2'. And it was up to 7 by the time I called it. He objected to my partner and kept talking about it. Halfway through the fourth quarter, here we are again with the point guard dribbling back and forth, I'm on trail, marking the count, I get to three and look at the coach who has his head turned away from the floor. So I started counting out loud, "THREE!!!... FOUR!!!... FIVE!!! ... " and then I paused, to be sure he was getting the message... Tweet! Not a word of complaint.

Oh, and by the way, his team won by nearly 30 points.

Jules,

Never verbalize the count, that will just get you in trouble down the line with one coach or the other.

If no one on that team could see you swinging your arm counting, then it is their fault, not yours.

What did they think you were doing stretching your elbow?

Those Washington coaches!! They never learn...what school was it? One of our Vancouver area ones???

Rocky - I had the girls from Prairie on Saturday and there were two 5 second closely guarded counts and they didn't make a peep.

In the games I did w/Juulie, we had them again, but we didn't have any 5 second violations, except on inbounds.

There was one violation in the other game, but it involved two Oregon teams.

You wouldn't have any problems with Prairie - they are one of the top programs in the State - very similiar to your Oregon City program...their coaches are pretty quiet...there are some other programs from over here who like to yell a lot...I was wondering if it was one of them...

Actually, it WAS Prairie. In fact, I had a Prairie weekend all the way around, with boys varsity and jv at camp, girls varsity on Saturday, and then these like frosh? girls Monday. I don't think this guy was the regular coach, though, and he clearly hadn't prepared the girls very well. They certainly were very talented and disciplined, and he mostly didn't complain.

Brian -- I know we're not supposed to verbalize the count and I never do. I just didn't want to call it again when he wasn't looking or following. I wanted him to see for himself. And it worked! He never said another word about it.

Interesting...my guess is that the Varsity coach was probably not around, as he usually does not let his coaches say much to the officials...