Just got a VB game two weeks from Saturday. This would be my first varsity assignment in basketball.

One little wrinkle for this sports fan, and something which Snaqs and DeNucci (maybe others) can appreciate: The start time potentially coincides with the NCAA FCS playoffs, something UMaine has never hosted. I have season tickets, and my Black Bears are 8-2 (surprising many this year), and are a likely candidate to host a game or two. We won't know until after the regular season closes this weekend.

Will have to wait and see. Fortunately, my assignment is three miles from UMaine.

Hoorah!
 

Congrats! Hope your schedule works out for you.

As always, let us know how it goes!

Orono or Old Town?
(Fellow Black Bear here)

Old Town, home of the... Coyotes.

(Another thing that's changed here since you left.)

Did they once have a Native American depicted name? ;)

Peace

And.... the can of worms is open!

Yes, formerly Old Town Indians, changed sometime in the last ten years.

Still, the gym has this huge, beautiful painting of nearby Penobscot Nation with the caption "Old Town Indians." And, the name of the island home of the Penobscot Nation remains, "Indian Island." I worked a playoff soccer game last month that featured Indian Island Middle School (Warriors).

The lack of verbal parallelism never ceases to baffle me.

Have done 2 JH/MS 8th Boys games. So far, so good.

One little tidbit for those who work in gyms where the scoreboard shows the TO Countdown, if you can have it only show on the scoreboard controller it'd make the coaches happier.

Not Your Father's Mascot ...
 

In my humble, non-Native American opinion, there are good Native American mascots, and there are bad Native American mascots. If the Native Americans that live in particular areas like the mascot, and don't have any problem with the mascot, then the schools should be allowed to continue to use it.

North Dakota Fighting Sioux - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That's as bad as my mom's alma mater being forced to change their mascot because of some of the local Aboriginal population thought it was offensive. If they think the mascot of a school is offensive, then they should ask that cities have to change their names as well (For example: Seattle is named after Chief Seattle) that are named after them or their tribe.

Yes I'm Offended, Now, Who Can I Sue ???
 

My great grandfather, a farmer, was born in Ireland, and he did not look like this:

http://ts3.mm.bing.net/images/thumbn...901f5950bb6a84

Agreed in total. The confusing part about the aforementioned instance in my northeast corner is that "Indian" is good enough for the name of the locale of the Penobscot Nation (Indian Island), but offensive when used as a sports mascot.

BTW, there will be no game conflict. My Black Bears aren't hosting; they're going to Appalachain State in the second round (first round bye).

There has been overkill in VT where one school was forced to drop "Crusaders" as a moniker, and another pressured to drop the southern looking Colonel as the face of their mascot. Another school, who is honoring "Indian Joe", who helped a lot of the early settlers in the area, has refused to back down from their school nickname, although they did sand down the center circle a few years ago.
Has Nokomis been forced to change their nickname?

And as the official, I'm asking you to turn the damned thing off, if possible. Two reasons:

(1) Every place that's had that, the timer told me he couldn't shorten the timeout. Don't know if this is just ignorance or the truth, but if both teams are ready to go, I don't want to wait for some timer to countdown.

(2) You put the timeout time on the scoreboard and the time left in the period disappears. Coaches, players, fans, AND officials like having that time up.

I've never heard of a worse idea than putting the timeout countdown on the scoreboard.

Here we go
 

I'm doing a BV scrimmage tonight, a GV scrimmage tomorrow night, and another GV scrimmage on Wednesday. I feel for those of you who don't get paid for scrimmages. My 3 days (and $180) will pay for much of my new clothing / shoes this season.

First games are Saturday. GV game at 3PM and a BV game at 7:30PM. 4 games next week. Bring it on.

Couldn't agree more. I hate having the timeout time kept on the scoreboard. It serves no real purpose, and takes valuable information (time left) off the scoreboard.