OT - best coaches ever - sort of

[Mark Padgett]

I had two girls HS rec games yesterday for my local kids rec league. In the first game, we knew in advance that neither coach could be at the game, so we had to get "substitute" coaches. There's no assistants either. Our Board president coached one team and our Board VP for HS level coached the other (her daughter is on that team). Neither one had coached in over 5 years so they both kept track of playing time with a calculator and a clipboard (we have a league rule that if a player shows up for both practices during the week, they have to play at least half the game on the weekend).

Of course, neither one complained about anything and they both asked very good questions during breaks. They thanked my partner and me after the game and had all the girls come up to shake our hands. Oh yeah, they made sure all the girls reported to the table when coming in then waited to be waved in by one of us (this is a sore point in our league) and that they always had their jerseys tucked in (another hassle that we deal with on a regular basis).

It was a fairly close game, with one team coming back from a 7 point halftime deficit to win by 5. The girls and parents were really into it and it was a lot of fun to officiate. In fact, there were hardly any held balls and very few fouls! These games are seven minute quarters (three minutes halftime) and we were done in a little over 45 minutes. We had almost half an hour before the next game so I had time to rest and take my meds (games are scheduled every hour and fifteen minutes).

I gotta admit, I wish all my games could turn out to be that pleasant to work.