Gotta Love Rec league
 

4-game slate on Saturday afternoon. 12-year-old boys, 20-minute running time halves (last minute of each half is stop time).

Game 1: Team A has a total of 5 players, Team B has 12 players. Kids were fairly good at ball-handling, but terrible at shooting. The crowd was actually very supportive, and the game came down to a missed final shot, final score 17-16.

Game 2: Team A is completely overmatched. By rule, we stop keeping score at the 10-minute mark in the second half if the point differential is > 50... it was 70-2 at the time. I checked with the scorekeeper after the game, (he'd been keeping track anyway) the final score was 91-7.

Game 3: Two teams that couldn't dribble for anything. I think I called 15 traveling and 20 double-dribble calls, and my partner had just as many as I did.

Game 4: Forfeit... Team B didn't show up. Team A had 11 players, so they split into two teams and scrimmaged while we officiated.

This is forbidden by my rec league supervisor.

We do also but for insurance coverage reasons.

Same here, liability issues.

Went To A Basketball Game And A Hockey Game Broke Out ...
 

I can understand why. Intrasquad scrimmages, especially when nothing is on the line, can be tough to officiate. Players tend to do things that they normally wouldn't even try to do in a "real" game that counts. Rough play often becomes a problem.

I had a team not show for the middle game of a Catholic middle school junior varsity tripleheader a few weeks ago. I was getting paid no matter what. Team that showed wanted to run an intrasquad scrimmage. Before the jump ball to start the game, I told the players and the coaches that any fooling around would lead to my quick exit. We played three running time 6:00 periods. No problems. My assigner thanked me.

Yesterday I had a B13/15 Game - Team A had three to start and "borrowed" four players from two other teams. Team B started with four players as they had "more on the way." Team B eventually had two other players arrive.

While Team A won on the scoreboard, Team B actually won by forfeit as they played with all their own team members.

I'll have to ask the league about scrimmages as you discuss. We usually just play on as its never come up.

Interesting, but it doesn't make sense to me. We work scrimmages every season at the hs level.

Those are scheduled scrimmages and here in VA high school scrimmages are regulated by the VHSL.

If I'm scheduled to work a game, and the game is a forfeit, I'm not officiating the ensuing "scrimmage" or "pick-up" game. And I don't feel bad about it. I showed up for work, not my fault if one of the teams didn't.

I feel almost exactly the opposite.

I'm getting paid to be there, so I might as well do something to earn my money, and the kids that are there should get a chance to play, especially at the younger levels. After all, we're really there for the kids.

Perhaps I do still have some of my youthful idealism left after all.

You're getting paid to officiate actual basketball contests, not scrimmages.

I worked a couple of "off-the-cuff" scrimmages my first year and vowed to never do it again. They are nightmare scenarios just waiting to happen.

Summer league this year, one team couldn't quite muster 5 players to start. The other team had 15. They officially did the forfeit thing, and my partner and I worked a scrimmage of sorts, with one team providing a few girls to even the numbers out. I didn't even think twice about it.

I don't look at it the same way. I have kids of my own. And I have earned my money by being there dressed and ready for tip-off. Once the game is a forfeit there is nothing stopping the kids or adults who participate from playing pick-up ball on their own. They don't need me for that.

It's not a matter of how anybody feels. And it's got nuthin' to do with idealism either. It is what it is.

If we stay and do the forfeited game, we have no insurance coverage. That doesn't mean that we can't still stay and do a scrimmage. That's completely up to the individual official. They just have to make that decision knowing that they have no insurance coverage from their officials association if they do so. They may still be covered under the group insurance of whoever is running this league if they have coverage though.

Personally, I agree with Newz about not staying. But it also ain't up to me to judge anybody that does want to stay. Conversely, they shouldn't be judging me either.

Agreed, but you're still taking all the fun out of it.

Shut up!!!!

How is that for fun? :D