"I'm 52 years old, and in all my years..."

[amusedofficial]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

be on time, be in proper uniform, hustle on all plays, use proper signals, enforce uniform and equipment restrictions, put the ball in play where it belongs, and not to participate in 50/50 raffles. He also allows us to switch when convenient, report from places outside the reporting area, and administer the throwin from across the lane.

Thank you. That very nicely sums up working AAU or whatever they call it out in the rust belt. The kids deserve a properly called game, no matter what the hucksters are doing to cut corners on paying officials, and we can give it to them. The only pet peeve I have about relaxed (excuse me, I mean paced) mechanics is I think it's important to switch on occasion so that things are balanced out on the floor.

Reading all the quibbling and arguing, I thought I had stumbled into a summer camp for coaches. Had an urge to whack someone.

As for eight games in one day, no chance on this earth can anyone be running anywhere near as effectively at the end as in the beginning. From tip-off in game 1 to the horn in game 8 is 12 hours. Presumably you have had something to eat in there (for me, that means a mandatory Siesta). Nobody can possibly be as sharp physically or mentally for the last one if they are for the first. Whether it's sex or calling basketball games, the law of diminishing returns is not suspended because we have some sort of conceited belief that we are Superman.

[Mark Padgett]

Back sometime in the early 90s, I worked a MS boys holiday tournament at a local HS gym that had two courts - one standard HS size and the other was what you would call MS size. The games were 20 minute running halves and they started one hour and ten minutes apart. On Friday night, I worked three games starting at 6:00. On both Saturday and Sunday, I worked four games in the mornings starting at 9:00 and four games in the evenings starting at 5:00 (including the "championship" game at 8:30 on Sunday night), so I had both afternoons to rest up and eat. A lot of my games were on the MS sized court, but not the last four on Sunday night. If I remember correctly (and at my age, that's not a given) the games paid $12 each, so I made $228 for the 19 games - in cash!

Needless to say, all my partners and I worked "convenience mechanics".

Oh yeah, we got as much free soda pop as we wanted. I must have downed at least 12 bottles of Diet Pepsi that weekend. Good thing the bathrooms were right next to the courts.

BTW - when I got home late on Sunday night, my wife said, "You home already?"

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

Needless to say, all my partners and I worked "convenience mechanics".

I worked a summer tournament at the local college that I attended in the summer of 97 or 98. I worked like 7 games on Saturday and 8 on Sunday. These were high school teams and we did the same thing. Hell after the end of day one I was exhausted. By the time we were done on day two I could hardly walk. There was no way I could run or do much during live ball periods, let alone dead ball periods. The most switching we did was during FTs, but that soon stopped as my partner and I (who worked all the games together) were so tired we were just trying to get through the games without getting hurt. I learned that I cannot work that many games in a row and needed a significant break to continue. Never again.

Peace