My night in GIGDGO-land

[Rich]

Based on past history, I knew tonight had the potential of being a long night. I joked with my partner that the odds were good that both coaches would end up seatbelted before the night was over. I was right.

It started early on -- the home team struggled getting the ball across the division line. I had 2 10-second violations in the first 4 minutes of the game. On the second one, the home coach started yelling, "That was SIX! That wasn't TEN! Blah Blah Blah Blah." I went over to him and told him that under no uncertain terms would he continue to yell across the floor at us this evening. He seemed mad at me because I dared tell him. He barely avoided getting whacked at this point. It was a matter of time, though.

That lasted until the second quarter. Their players had this annoying habit of ignoring the ball after an opponent made basket when it was laying right next to them. Well, we did what we're supposed to do -- start counting. Well, the coach didn't like that, he said something to my partner, and we shot some free throws.

In the fourth quarter, a visiting team player threw up a corner three and then tried to throw herself on the floor. I was the lead taking the player back down. The coach loudly asked if we decided to stop calling fouls cause it's late in the game. Then we shot more free throws.

With a minute left, a player who'd been a pain all night ended up on the floor with the ball and my partner asked her for it. She faked rolling it to him, laid it on the floor next to her, and ran down the floor. Whack.

Tonight made me realize that maybe I'd be happier with fewer, higher quality games. Ironic thing is that I could've worked about 4 higher-quality games (at least 2 of them 3-person) closer to home tonight, but I was stuck with this cause it was already on the schedule.