Who said MS games were boring?

[Stat-Man]

Had an away MS girls game last night. This particular opponent has nver truly had an official scorer as their scorer only tracks their team and not the opponent. In past years, either our HC or myself ask to be official scorer in light of that and never have a problem.

This year, things went one step further. Home team didn't even have a scorer or book for the 7th grade game (we play 7th grade first, followed by 8th grade). Ended up having to add players to my game sheets as they entered (no big deal, but still...).

I pointed out the lack of ahome book and scorer to the R and added, "so this mean's I'm official scorer, right?", he made some sort of grunt or otherwise noncommitted acknowledgement. *shrugs*

7th grade game goes on without any major issues. In the 5 minutes bteween the 7th and 8th grade game, I see nobody on the home side of the scorers table again, so I figure the home team has no book or scorer again and remove our team's roster I had over there for the home scorer and figure I've got the official book deisgnation again.

In the 8th grade game, I had the home coach calling all four of her timeouts (league rule: 4 full timeouts per game). I tell the R and he acknowledges it. Fast forward to 37 seconds left in the 5th and final period (another league rule, we play five periods of 4-4-4-6-6 minutes respectively). Home team takes a timeout -- #5 according to my records. I get the R's attention to tell him it's an excessive timeout.

Al of a sudden some lady sitting on the opposite side of the time says the home team only took 3 time outs. I have no idea where she came from, since she wasn't there before the 8th grade game or at the tipoff .
I remind the R that he deisgnated me official scorer to start the day and I've been operating as one ever since and his response was "I don't recall that."

Eventually, he rules that the home book is always official and we have no choice but to go by what Mrs. Last-Second Scorer has (full provisions of NFHS 2-11 notwithstanding).

What a mess. At least it didn't affect the outcome of the game, but it definitely got me even more irritated that this school can't ever seem to field a competent table crew.

[SCalScoreKeeper]

Email the league coordinator with your story.If I were the league coordinator my first response would be to email the school and remind them of their obligation to provide qualified personnel for home contests. Also a rule modification might be in order here.It would say that until this school provides a scorer and book who will work from "The trench" all visiting scorekeepers are considered the official book when playing at this site. If more reports are received regarding this issue then offending school should be relieved from all hosting responsibilities for the remainder of this season and 1 full season! Maybe then their administration will get the message.

[BillyMac]

NFHS 2-11-11:The scorebook of the home team shall be the official book, unless the referee rules otherwise.

[Stat-Man]

Originally Posted by SCalScoreKeeper

Email the league coordinator with your story.

SCal:

I did follow the chain of command and sent a memo to our district-level AD with both concerns from this game and the fact that they have had similar issues in the past when we compete in the same league. Will anything happen? Who knows. But someone in authority needs to know what's going on.

Originally Posted by SCalScoreKeeper

Also a rule modification might be in order here.It would say that until this school provides a scorer and book who will work from "The trench" all visiting scorekeepers are considered the official book when playing at this site.

On the rare occasion a home team has its players doing the home book, our coach will ask if I can be designated as official simply because he trusts an adult with 26 years experience over a minor. Such requests usually get granted with no problem.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

NFHS 2-11-11:The scorebook of the home team shall be the official book, unless the referee rules otherwise.

Don't forget this portion, however, concerning discrepancies:

"If the mistake cannot be found, the referee shall accept the record of the official scorebook, unless he/she has knowledge which permits him or her to decide otherwise." (emphasis mine).

The R in this game was totally unwilling to entertain any other information. In his eyes, the home scorebook was infallible and he was unwilling to see if this discrepancy could be resolved.

[Forksref]

The "home" book better be at the scorer's table or in some cases on the home bench, otherwise I am not recognizing it.

[Indianaref]

Did you record the time of each requested time-out? Not saying it would have change anything, but it would have made you look more credible.

[Stat-Man]

Originally Posted by Indianaref

Did you record the time of each requested time-out? Not saying it would have change anything, but it would have made you look more credible.

Yes, I do. With the scoresheets I use, I will put the time above the timeout number I slash out and the period below. Something like this (I had to use . to represent whitespace between symbols):

215 005
./...\
.2...3

This would be what I'd have to record time outs taken with 2:15 remaining in period 2 and 5 seconds left in period 3 of a four quarter game.

I also use different pen colors for each period and switch the direction of the hash marks ( / & \ ) for each half so I can reconstruct a game from start to finish if needed.

I did start to read off the times taken I had for the time outs I had in question, but it was all for naught.