Another Small Gym Story
 

Well, I had one of “those gyms” last night. A small Private School that’s been there 20 yrs. Unbelievably small! ("How small was it?" Ed McMahon)

The end lines were two feet from the wall (which had some minor padding). The backboards were even with the end line. In captain’s/coaches meetings we discussed that unless you or the ball were touching the wall during a live ball, play on! On an end line throwin – don’t worry about stepping over the line in a minor way. Certainly had to give three feet. I inbounded the ball once on the end line and stepped to the side to get a wider angle and almost went down as I bumped right up against the seats.

As we’ve discussed on the Forum before, this gym had a lot of bizarre issues. The seats were like an amphitheater - rounded, rows of rising bench seats only on one side of the gym, that were solid with edges and close to the floor. All over the gym there were light switches, boxes, fire alarms that were covered in “hard cages” so as not to be damaged if someone ran into them …….but, if a player hit em? Wow?

Jump ball goes up for JV game. Hit toward out of bounds. Blue chases after it and makes a great save throwing the ball over his head with both hands. WHAM! He runs right into a set of wall lockers located adjacent to the floor and against the wall. Me :eek: Gonna be one of those nights.

Later in the JV game W12 is leading the fast break and B5 is chasing. B5 goes up to block the shot and WHAM! Both players hit the wall and go crashing to the ground in a heap. W12 is in pain. I saw him roll his ankle. He’s out for the game.

The clock was on the opposite side of the gym from the seats on top of the wall lockers and the operator ran it with a fob from across the gym (I'd never seen that before). Four seconds left before a quarter ended, coach requests a time out. Me, TWEET! Time Out B Coach. Clock went to 2 secs. Me, "I need you to put 4 secs on the clock." Clock operator, "Sure thing." He walks across the floor, takes the clock off the wall lockers, adds 2 secs and returns to his spot on the ampitheater seats. :rolleyes:

And so, my night went……..

Unfortunately, the level of play matched the quality of the facilty. JV game was won by V 32-25. H took the Varsity game 30-19.

Truly a Get in, Get done, Get out evening. Move on. Nothing to see here…….

I’m sending a note to my Association. That gym should be banned.

"The backboards were even with the end line."

Why? Shouldn't the plane of the backboard be four feet inside the end line?

Probably mounted directly to the wall. If they moved each one 4 feet inside the end line, the rims would touch. :rolleyes:

And the court had two division lines. :D

As a scarlet and grey clad Buckeye, I have only one thing to say....More proof Michigan sucks. :D

I had one gym with 3 "division" lines. You had to cross the middle one within 10 seconds - but then the furthest line back was the "new" line deliniating the seperation of front and back court areas. Of course this was all reversed going the other way. What a pain!

Big that my referee bag is, I will admit to not having all of my electric power tools in it to move the backboard. ;)

Exactly

There was about 10' from the top of the arc to the center circle......

So how far was it from the end line to the FT line? :eek:

Yeah...one was located under each backboard. :D

Hey, I just figured out the problem with this court: when they built it, they thought the blueprint said 84" instead of 84'. :D

Fair question Nevada!
 

It was short. The blocks were pushed down toward the backboards. So, in this gym, if the rule wasn't instituted where they stood "above the block," they would have been at a real disadvantage - like even with the backboard.

Really sad.

I'm surprised the state would allow games to be in this gym for safety reasons. Does the state know about these apparent unsafe conditions?

-Josh

You Say, "How Small Was It ?" ...
 

Been there. Done that. Have a game at that school on Saturday, but in a brand new fieldhouse.

Reading this reminds me of the secondary gym.

Josh - I don't know about the state, but I sent a note to my Assignor and our Association Commissioner.

Of course, I don't expect any results as the gym has apparently been there for 20 yrs and many others have worked there, played there, been injured there, etc. But, my conscience is clear......

Excellent post, about pissed my pants on the add 2 seconds. Only seen a gym like that once and I wasn't reffing there!

We have some tiny gyms around here. There is one that sounds similar to this one, but it's at a 1A rural public school. Fan backboards, VERY small court, almost no room around the OOB lines (Walls close, benches are almost sitting on the court, bleachers close). It's very difficult to call a game there because it feels like there is always something in your way.

What were "they" thinking?
 

I don't know what architects or designers think sometimes. I mean, this court was made so there shouldn't be a game/spectators in it....

Elementary school gym, with teenagers 15U playing - first off they're too big for this gym.

Next, the sidelines are rediculous. Where the benches/table are there is no room to inbounds the ball. Literally inches from the court. Most parents have to stand, because if you sit......your feet may be on the court!

My least favorite part though is there is a really, really low, permanent/non-movable basket on the near sideline by the V bench. At one point I was in transition and called a foul.....as I raised my arm to signal the foul my hand/arm went up and into the bottom of the net! :eek: (I'm only 5'8") And, to top it off, it's a CHAIN net! Indoors? You're kidding me?

I sent a note to my assignor......sigh.

It was probably made only for the purposes of having PE class with no consideration that it would ever be used for anything else. (or no budget to make it bigger for use in any other capacity).

Ironically, back "in the day", we played a HS in OHIO that may have the record for being small. It is difficult to describe except for this. When brining the ball up, we had 10 seconds to get the ball over half court. Once past half court, the "division" line was then moved back to the volleyball line.(Spike/hit line? not oob) The home team used it to their advantage. We would press and when we THOUGHT we had a good trap just past half court, theyw ould just pass it backwards. Frustrating, but it WAS fun taking shots from "half - court"!!!

My point was that your FT line was probably not the correct distance from the ring or backboard. That seems to be a fundamental change to the playing of the game.
It would follow that the 3pt line would be incorrect as well.

:rolleyes:

Camron - you're probably right. This is NOT a new school/gym.

One good part is that there was a schedule mixup and we had THREE officials do this game. As the C it was ten/eleven walking strides from foul line to foul line. Fifty-five minutes. Didn't even work-up a sweat. Cha-ching!

Good points I hadn't considered at the time.

This configuration is used frequently in my neck of the woods. It's rather quite easy, if one is able to adapt and think quickly.

7-3 Is A Baseball Score, How Many Homeruns ???
 

That's the problem with metric gyms.