NCAA - no more jackets
 

Just got word from my assignor that we are no longer wearing jackets during pregame...is this coming down from the top or a regional thing? Don't have my CCA manual yet...

was optional last year in NCAAW

Not hearing this on the NCAA Men's side. Then again we have not had meetings yet either.

Peace

I've got a jacket for sale if someone needs one! :)

Everything I'm hearing on the women's side is the crew wears the same jacket (either with or without the CCA logo) or they go without. I won't buy the "new" jacket unless one of my assignors requires it.

Purpose of the jacket?
 

The gyms aren't so cold that I need the jacket to stay warm. The jacket doesn't usually serve any purpose for me and I've wondered if it should. Does anybody keep anything in their pocket which might be useful (e.g., extra whistle, needle, shoestring, Advil, cell phone)? Once, my partner was running late and I had my cell phone in my jacket pocket to get updates, but my partner was on the floor with about 6 minutes before game time.

I keep a air needle and sometimes an extra whistle or even some notes for the table to make sure we discuss. At the HS level we put down an ID number, so I might have that on a card in my pocket. But it does not serve a major purpose other than I think it looks sharp and it is traditional.

Peace

Similar...needle, whistle, and normal lanyard as a backup (I use a smitty normally and I have had the attachment loop on the shirt break).

Me too, but I keep the lanyard in my pants pocket. Otherwise it'll be the third quarter when my loop snaps.

Camouflaging The Zebra Stripes ...
 

Zebra stripes provide great camouflage in the grasslands of Africa, but not on a basketball court. The jacket camouflages, or covers, the camouflage zebra stripes, so we "blend in" until we're ready to start the game. With jackets on, fans won't start yelling at us, or throwing stuff at us, until we take the jackets off, and start the game.

Not really an rational opinion based on any facts, just an off the cuff comment. Sure it's posted in jest, tongue in cheek, but there may be a tiny bit of truth in it.

Agree, agree, and, agree again. You hit the trifecta.

...reading glasses...to look the book over. Makes for a good laugh with the table as I usually say while pulling out my "readers" and looking around sheepishly..."Don't tell anyone!" :D

In addition to (most of) the above -- Sometimes (especially at the HS level) we fill out vouchers at the table, and my copy of the voucher goes in the jacket.

When it actually does start getting cold, I find the jacket useful for keeping warm a lot of the small, drafty gyms I find myself working in. Not a problem probably at the collegiate level.

In these small college gyms? You might need the jacket more considering the small buildings some of the places teams play. Fewer seating and not as big to get to the floor. Some of floors are right off the entrance. Then again I live in the Midwest too, so there you go.

Peace

Whistle/lanyard, needle, gum.

OK well the voice of experience. I will defer to you then. :)

I am sure in other parts of the country like Texas, the weather is certainly different during the basketball season.

Peace

I like the look of the jackets during pregame. When starting out, I couldn't wait to get to the varsity level so I could wear the jacket.

I always keep a needle in the pocket although rarely used.

Certainly, but it still gets cold here. Not dig your car out of a snowbank to get to work kind of cold, but cold. :)

Rarely used? I think we took air out of 50 of the 60 balls we used last season. Basketballs, in general, are horribly over-inflated.

Unless Texas spends a great deal of the winter months below 30 degrees, I would not call 50s and 60s to be cold. Then again a laugh at my relatives in Florida and Texas when they claim they are cold and it is in the low 60s. ;)

Peace

Yes, I'm trying to understand this concept of needing jackets in a gym...

I like wearing a jacket during warmups. I'd hate to carry a needle in my pants pocket, first of all, and I'm actually cold in many of our HS gyms before a game starts.

Then again, in a perfect world, we wouldn't have to stand there for 20 minutes (that's what it is in our state) watching teams warm up. We'd come out at about 12 minutes, do a captain's meeting, check the book, and go back in until the clock was at 2 minutes.

And I'd leave my jacket in the locker room -- which is what we do sometimes when both teams go in.

Our state wants us to come out when the team enters the floor. That could be 20 minutes, 15 minutes or 10 minutes based on when the prelim game gets over with.

And I get cold too. Not all gyms are heated or well heated.

Peace

Our state always gives 20 minutes for warmups -- even if the preliminary game runs long. That's when we come out. Horn, teams come out, we come out with them. I guess the AD and coaches aren't enough adults to properly supervise players. I wonder how they ever get through practice!

I wish they'd put an elliptical machine or a treadmill at halfcourt, so I could keep the blood flowing.

I actually prefer the cold gyms once the game starts -- but until then I freeze.

I run a lot more in my college games so my body temp is up there; I often put on the jacket in the locker room because I get cold.

The Three Amigos ...
 

You guys must not leave your jackets in the locker room at halftime?

The Needle And The Damage Done (Neil Young) ...
 

We're in the process of getting new jackets, local logo instead of the IAABO logo (due to licensing restrictions). We were given about three seasons to change over. I used the new jacket last season. The pockets are so shallow that I lost, and had to buy, and replace, several needles that were lost, until I eventually figured out to duct tape the needle into the pocket. I used the same needle for over twenty-five years with my old jacket with the deep pockets, the needle was so old that it was tarnished and wasn't shiny any more. The new jacket also has a satin finish that makes us look like disco roller skaters. What was the executive committee thinking when they selected this model?

I like the jacket for traditional reasons as well as the ritual that goes with it...

i.e. the whole crew taking off the jackets at the same time after the national anthem...handing the jackets to table personnel for them to carefully place them in a secure location...going to the table at the end of the 2nd Qrt. only to awkwardly get each others jacket, sometimes handing off the correct jackets to each other as we make our way to the halftime locker room, sometimes one official grabs all jackets...

speaking of jackets...why do some officials wear their college jackets to a H.S. game?

To cheap to buy 2 jackets?

Showing off the not so neat college jacket?

Also, we aim for going on the court 15 minutes prior to 0:00. Captains at 12:00 and Books at 10:00.

Dunks acceptable (or at least we don't care) untill we get on the court...

I agree, I think they look professional.

In my state we come out 15 minutes before regardless if teams are on the court already. I wish we only had to do the meetings and book check, we are there to officiate the game not the warm-ups.

Don't ask...

This....

and that sound you just heard was the top coming off the can-o-worms.

I like to take my jacket off at the same time as my partners, but some are slow. I take mine off during the announcements, turn it inside out (to keep dirt off the outside), and zip it back up and fold it.

It gets washed exactly never. Although I did learn to put hairspray on *before* putting my jacket on...the hard way. Now I just keep my hair very short.

Regarding extra whistles / lanyards -- I never carry one. If my whistle breaks -- we'll be waiting while I retrieve one. And it's unlikely that my noose will break.

Good programs and schools take our jackets in the locker room for us. ;)

Peace

I've found that most things that are going to go wrong do so at the start of the game. I don't need the needle after we adjust the ball to start. If I'm going to forget my normal whistle (never happened but I've loaned my spare out a few times...and sanitized it upon return), it will be at the start, not during the middle of the 3rd quarter. And, finally, if my smitty loop is going to break, it is probably going to break one of the first 2-3 times I use the whistle and spit it out.

How about when your smitty does break and you spit your whistle to the floor? (Its happened to me a couple times)

Isn't "muscle memory" grand?;)

You're supposed to catch it like the NBA guys do !!! :D :D :D

Jacket At Halftime ...
 

My jacket goes into the locker room with me at halftime, and stays there. All I have in my jacket pocket is a needle, and, as Camron Rust stated, the needle is probably only going to be used at the start of the game, I never had to let air out of a basketball at any time, in thirty-two years, other than at the start of the game. My extra whistle is in my pant's pocket, I use a noose lanyard, and hope that it doesn't break during the game. I tried a smitty, but had the loop break and immediately went back to the noose, and stayed with it. I once forgot my whistle and noose lanyard, left it in the locker room, before the game. I was the umpire, my partner was ready to toss, I went to grab my whistle to put it in my mouth, and it wasn't there. Stopped the game, had trouble finding the site director to unlock the locker room (of course), finally did, got my whistle, and lanyard, and came back into the gym to some sarcastic clapping from the crowd (I deserved it).

Hang 'Em High ...
 

We've got a couple of guys, mostly old timers, who don't use any lanyard. I tried it once, for fun, in a recreation game, and spit the whistle out and onto the floor several times in the first period. Between periods, I went into the locker room and got my lanyard. That was the first, and last time, that I will go comando.

I've had that happen. But, as I said, such failures I've encountered usually occur when you start using something...early in the game. It is weak and the first pull or two on it breaks it.

Because some officials who didn't have a HS game all year (or for several years) were assigned a HS playoff game.

My first CCA jacket had the lining ripped by the washer. i was doing some games at my church and wanted to wear a jacket but not my HS jacket -- already put up for the spring and it wasn't a HS league -- so I wore the old CCA one just because it was old. I would have taken the patch off if it had it been easy (and had I checked on whether it would have been easy) but I didn't see the point of buying a blank jacket. Honestly no one knew what it was except another official.

Are you kidding?

Agreed. The one time my loop broke, it was when I was attaching the whistle.