I've been to this school a dozen times. Probably 3-4 times for football and 7-10 times for basketball over the 9 years I've lived here. Sometimes, with the weather and snow, you just get there when you get there. I have never showed up so late that the game didn't start on time. Well, except once when a local school snuck in a 6:30PM start and I never noticed on the contract. :D

Quite frankly, although I try to arrive at 6:30PM for a 7:30PM start, getting there last night at 6:50PM was a victory, not a defeat. And the AD, on seeing me, started laughing and asked me about our drive. The visiting assistant (who has always been friendly to me) saw me walk in with my bag and *he* started laughing, saying it figured that tonight I'd have to drive so far to work.

It's funny, though, how you rush, rush, rush, and then you end up sitting through OT and also through the 20 minutes where you do nothing but stand there watching kids not dunk (amongst other things).

My check ended up being for $120 (which I think is the biggest HS check I've seen for a regular season game) and my expenses (I figure) were about $35 for gas and $15 for food and a brew on the way home. So it wasn't terrible.

"You can observe a lot by watching"
 

Sounds like something Yogi would say. Do we call this a bob-ism?

I've had a lot of senior NCO's use the same phrase; and I don't think any of them know bob.

My college coach said it even simpler: If you're on time, you're late.

And he proved it after one particularly irksome loss out of town. Somehow I was one of just two players to make it to his van the next morning a little ahead of time for the four-hour ride home. He, an assistant and we two players occupied his eight-person van.

We got home well before the other van -- with 12 other players and two coaches crammed in it -- did.

Vince Lombardi used a saying sumthin' like that (mad rush by the young un's to Google Vince Lombardi).

Isn't he the guy in Law and Order: Criminal Intent?

"With a Little Help from My Friends"
 

Dan Lauria, the dad in "The Wonder Years", is playing Lombardi on Broadway.

http://www.playbill.com/images/photo...1287607612.jpg

Algonquin Rd.?

This is somewhat travel related. I had a JV/V boys night tonight about 40 miles from home. I get ready to leave in time to pick one partner up so we would be there about 45 minutes before tip off. I go to put my bag in the trunk, but my keyless entry remote won't open the trunk, so I have to use the key. I get in to start the car.....nothing. I realize that I had left the parking lights on for a few hours and the battery was drained. Luckily my neighbor across the street was home and he gave me a jump. We still got there 35 minutes before the start, but I was about to have a heart attack when I turned the key and heard absolutely nothing.

Paraphrasing: (trying to remember what I read in Jerry Kramer's book about 40 years ago) The Lombardi clock is twenty minutes ahead of the real clock. If you're twenty minutes early, you're on time. If you're ten minutes early, you're the last one there. If you're on time, you're late.

Learned it in my early military days too.....
 

"Lombardi time" is the principle that one should arrive 10–15 minutes early, or else be considered late.

My Alma matter compensated for that by starting classes 10 after the hour. :D

I used to live in the Chicago area, and remember without fondness 90 min drives to HS games.
Now that I live in South New Jersey, where we get almost no snow and most games are 30 min away, no more complaints from me!!

Roy

Especially if I have never been to a school before, I give myself a half hour of 'getting lost time'. It takes the pressure off.

Every school I work at is at least 50 miles from work, so I have to give myself plenty of time to account for traffic accidents.