+1 That's the protocol around here as well.

That said, when I was in Des Moines, we wouldn't know who our partner was (for subvarsity games) until we showed up at the game site.

Yikes! Those crazy Iowans....

Yep, but then again, that's back when schedules were done by telephones and paper calendars.

Exactly. It's officials taking care of officials. When the schools do the assigning, I think they have to be nudged to do the right thing, sometimes.

Just curious
 

What is your rotation or court coverage gonna be in one-man? I'll bet somewhere in everyones' past we've had to do it. I remember working foul line extended to opposite fl extended (opposite table) such as a C. I even asked table personnel to help me out by calling oob on that sideline with a hand gesture. Anybody got any pointers here?

I've done it for little kids recently, and I generally work C to C; occasionally dropping down into L, and occasionally working the middle of the court.

I've done it in the past, although not in the past 15-20 years (that I can remember). I always worked opposite the table, mainly FT line to FT line, although I went where I felt I needed to go.

I didn't require a touch of the ball on endline throw-ins, but I wouldn't allow the throw-in until I told them to go (this was in the days before we bounced).

I took no crap from the benches (and rarely got any). They knew I was doing the best I can.

Some schools in our area are far enough apart that the game would be over by the time you drove from one to the other....even if they figure out their mistake right away.

Also possible here. Most schools, if I show early enough to the wrong school and learn it soon enough, I could make it by game time; but there are a couple of exceptions. Particularly if one of the schools is up in the mountains.

+ 1 and as far as I'm concerned, if this is the worst thing that happened while you were working a HS game solo, you deserve more varsity games!!

You are too kind. The game pretty much called itself. The freshman game afterwards would've probably hit the toilet if I had called that one solo.

Admittedly, I did not communicate with my partner before the games so I certainly share some of the burden. I chalk that one up to being lazy since that is not really the standard practice around here.

The other school was a pretty good distance away so I'm actually surprised he made it to the second game before half-time.

Not sure how everyone else gets their assignments but ours are made using Arbiter. You get an email informing you that you have a new game (or games), you log into Arbiter and accept or reject. If you accept, all the information about the game is there to include which position you are (R, U1 or U2), who your partners are (with all their contact info), where the game will be played (with address & phone number), who the game adminstrator is as well as who the billing official is. If a supervisor will be observing, you know who that will be as well. I love this system. It also sends you an email reminder 3-4 days prior to game day with the information in it as well.

In other words, there is no excuse for showing up at the wrong location.

Part of the problem is you also get the visiting team information. I'm not saying it's excusable, but in the middle of a busy season it's definitely possible to get your wires crossed and mess this up. That's why it's standard protocol here for the R to call the rest of the crew two days ahead of time. If I'm the/a U and haven't heard from the R, I'll initiate the calls.

Sure there is. I've had the game location in Arbiter be wrong. All the officials showed up on time at an empty soccer field.

I agree this doesn't take the place of making the phone - definitely needs to be done as well.