Timer Question

[bard]

8th grade girls game last night with, of course, an 8th grade girl running the clock. Clock was very slow to start on occasion in the first half. Realized if she had to update a foul count, she was late to start the clock, so we took our time inbounding after a foul so she could catch up.

End of first half and I am trail. Ball goes baseline corner on my side. My P has moved over to assist as we have 10 girls on the same side of the court. We're both watching the action, and my P calls a defensive foul (one and bonus situation) on visitors.

Visitor coach quickly starts howling (which he had been doing a lot of) that he should have 6 seconds on the clock. The clock shows .8. Neither my P nor I knew how much time there should have been, and there's no report from the table. I line the girls up and shoot.

To make matters worse, the free throw is missed, home rebounds and gets up the shot and scores before the buzzer. Yes, the girl running the clock didn't start it quickly enough. My P says the home player still got the shot off in time, but I'm doubtful.

We did well overall, but I'm guessing we should have managed this better...

[RecRef]

Talking on a cellphone, eating a burger and fries, head down on the controller or table are just a few of my favorite thing at this level.

One thing you can do is go over their duties with them before the game. Put it is such a way that if I or my partner make a mistake we need your help. If things get out of hand I first take a second to walk over to the table and tell them that I know you want to watch your friends play but we do need your help. You may want wipe the fouls display off of the board and keep track of them in your head. (With 8th grades you can count to 7 and 10 real fast)