There's gotta be something wrong with this
 

For a few years, I've worked a MS tournament called the President's Day Tournament here in the Portland area. Boys teams from around the country come in to play. This year, there's over 350 games in three days. I wasn't aware of it until I got to one of the 20 gym floors being used yesterday but they expanded the teams to include 3rd and 4th graders! Yeah, that's right, 3rd grade traveling teams!

I was assigned a game at this level because I have experience training HS kids to work that level in our local rec league. Big difference, however. During the game, the coaches spent almost all their time yelling at the top of their lungs at their kids. The rest of the time, they were yelling at me and my partner. It was disgusting.

I T'd up the coach from Seattle (the other team was from Eugene). One of his players fouled out (I think it was his son) and when I went over to inform him of this, he said, "That wouldn't be the case if you and your partner knew what the he77 you were doing out there". WHACK!

Oh yeah - his team lost by 15. Games are 14 minute stop time halves at that level in this tourney.

More oh yeah - the spectators were worse than the coaches.

WOW, 350 games on 20 floors....you got to have some problems with some coaches.

Did Skippy work any games?

Once again I am reminded why I never do AAU or AYBT games. I once had a 7grade game and a player gets fouled. Mom screams out, "Don't you take that. Foul him back but harder when you get to the other end of the court!" STUPIDITY in the flesh. Another game I did I had 10... no exageration here.... 10 3-4th grade girls standing in the lane trying to rebound a ball. One lady with a voice like a crow yells out, "You have to call that." At a TO I'm waiting to inbound and she says, more politely this time, "You have to call 3 -seconds." I look at her and reply, "Mam, I have 10 girls in the lane on every shot. Which one do you want me to call it on?" She said, "Oh... that might be a problem, huh?"

Skippy's working all the championship games on Monday all at the same time. I think his partner is Diebler.

And His Buddy Jif Also Got Recalled ...
 

Hey, didn't Skippy get recalled for Salmonella ???

I feel your pain . . . this past weekend, I helped out a buddy by picking up a few Little Dribblers games (which I haven't done in years!). After my last game, I am packing up to take the g/f on a date. While I am changing some daddy comes in and starts yelling at me. F-ing this, f-ing that . . . calls me a P.O.S., yada, yada, yada. I tell him leave or go to jail. He leaves. Note: He does his tyrade WITH HIS KID IN TOW!!!! Standing there with him. FIRST GRADERS . . . 6 year old kids.

To add on, I was told afterward by the site administrator that this particular team hasn't won any games this year . . . not even close (within 10 points)! They played to within 4 points in my game. You would think I might have received some kind of award. :p

Had a dad mouth "pathetic" (I'm a good lip reader because of my hearing loss) towards me after the end of a Freshman B girls game this past Saturday as I was running off the floor after the game. I just shook my head and ran past him.

While your statement may have quieted her down, I am thinking a more educational statement would have been more appropriate. Something along the lines of, "Ma'am, the three second count TERMINATES when a shot is taken." In reality, even if only ONE, count 'em ONE player was in the lane when the shot went up NONE of them would have been guilty of a three second violation.

Central Ohio Travel Tourney this weekend through next (not on 20 courts, but double digit courts in total). First game was a 4th grade girls game. I needed treatment from the trainer after the game for overuse of both thumbs (about 50 held balls in the 24 minute regular clock game). Fans were "typical" entry level travel fans -- clueless about the rules of basketball, but more than happy to yell and let everyone know that fact.

During the first half of the first game, I report an obvious foul to the table. As I turn back to the court, I hear a voice that I have heard several times now yell out, "it's OK Jenny, you have to play through the bad calls that these officials are making." Might have been OK, other than the fact that the voice was that of the OFFICIAL SCORER!!! I told him if I heard one more comment, he was done. He was quiet the rest of the half and looked like a completely different guy in the second half -- much shorter, much balder and about 20 pounds heavier :rolleyes: Original scorer was spotted on the PARENTS side of the court in the second half. :D

After the game, a parent came over to us and announced, "That was BY FAR the best officiated game our girls have had ALL YEAR. By the way, my daughter played for the team that lost (same team as the official scorer)."
:D

Many of these kids will end up playing high school basketball some day. It is almost as enjoyable seeing the parents improve their knowledge as it is to see the players improve their skills.

3rd grade travel? I'm not surprised as it's all about the parents egos and of course someone can feed off that to make a few bucks............silly.

Even Jon Diebler had to start somewhere.....

I've got a third grader, and can't imagine paying to put her into a travel league.

I grew up with travel leagues as an 8-year old; in both baseball and basketball. What I thought was travelling to far-away cities, certainly wasn't when I became older and realized more about time and distance. ;) The cities we travelled to were usually ~ 30 minutes away at the most, with the odd tournament up to 50 minutes away (certainly less than an hour).