It's true, you never know who is in the stands.
 

JV Boys/Girls DH in a mid-sized school. Turns out to be the hometown of one of our state's evaluators, who came to see us.

He did a fantastic job on the evaluation, with very detailed comments and advice including the page of the officiating manual where the mechanic in question is covered. He went through it with us between games, and had a great teaching demeanor as he did it.

So, thanks to all of you evaluators out there.

The funny thing is he left before the girls game, which included a T for a player wearing a number that wasn't in the book, a Hokey pokey kind of scramble for the ball that ended in a PC foul and some of the oddest looking traveling violations I have seen.

Wouldn't you leave before the JV Girls game if you could?

+1 and a literal LOL. Actually I enjoy the girls games, maybe because I had a daughter who played for a while.

I'd think the girls JV game would be the better gauge of how much off the wall stuff an official can handle. :)

Wouldn't we all?

That was my thinking.

Me too, I just didn't want to be the first to say it. :D

No matter how much of this stuff you handle, there's no way to look good. I worked a couple of JV scrimmages in November (for one the other two officials wanted to wrk the varsity and we were paid the same $60, so I didn't care and for the other we worked alternating JV/V periods) and it was amazing how much weird stuff we had, including a traveling violation just about every trip down the floor.

And guess what? I was all set to go and do 2 varsity games tonight, then found out a little while ago there was also a JV. I assumed it was boys, which is more common at this school, but nobody said so. All of a sudden I have a bad feeling.

Sometimes there is. I worked a JV girl's game my first year with a co-official with a couple of years on. We were cruising in a tight game when the end of the fourth quarter went completely haywire. A number of technicals and a few intentionals later, we got out of the game relatively unscathed. The game went to pot but the varsity officials watching felt we did well and maintained our composure when the game suddenly exploded on us.

I'd rather poke a sharp stick in my eye than stay!

Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here ...
 

Here, in my little corner of the Constitution State, officials are required to observe the game before, or after, their game to rate all the officials at the site. Usually the subvarsity game is before the varsity game, almost all of the time for public high schools, with some exceptions for Holiday Tournaments. Varsity officials are expected to get to the site for the tipoff of the subvarsity game, and observe until the intermission between the third and fourth period, when they retreat to the locker room to dress, and conduct a pregame. Subvarsity officials are expected to stay, at least, until halftime of the varsity game.

As a varsity official I don't mind this procedure. Watching the subvarsity game, usually with my partner, I get to wind down from my work day, and commute, and get my mind geared toward basketball.

However, the prep schools around here usually schedule the two games in reverse order. I have a prep school game today, and I'm not looking forward to watching the second game. I'll be tired, I'll want to get home (to watch Cops), and I'm going to be stuck watching a subvarsity game, a prep school game, on a Saturday, and worse, a girls prep school game.

We arrive about an hour before the tip, when the JV game is in the third quarter, usually. I may watch a few minutes of that game once a week or so. I'd rather be in the locker room doing some stretching and leisurely dressing for the reason I'm there - working my game.

There was no varsity game mentioned.

Amen.