A table crew can make for a long night

[zm1283]

Girls JV/V doubleheader. In the JV game we had the following:

- Timer not hitting the first horn during timeouts. Had to remind her several times and she finally got it down in the V game.

- They had the arrow set in the wrong direction and didn't tell us until after the wrong team had thrown it in. We left it as is and the "wrong" team kept the ball. (I usually am good at keeping track in my head but we had to use the arrow about 25 times...fun times)

- Team foul count was screwed up. The Visitors had 5 to the Home team's 3 at one point. The Visitors foul and I look up and it's now 5-4. I go to the table to ask and the scorer has it correct but the clock/scoreboard operator had put it up incorrectly. I don't think they were communicating at all.

- She would hit the horn for subs as soon as the whistle blew. I went to the table one time to report and three subs start coming on the court. I wave them back and tell her to wait on us to do what we need to do before hitting the horn. This happened in a game last week at a different school also.

I'm sure there was more but I've tried to put that game out of my memory in the last 12 hours.

Thankfully she got better as the night went on and we didn't have any messes in the Varsity game. I kind of felt bad for her. She told me the normal guy was gone and she had not worked the table in forever. The host school district is kind of notorious for being unorganized and not on top of things, so it didn't surprise me much.

[Welpe]

Fortunately she was at least receptive to feedback and worked on what you were telling her. That's infinitely better than the timer / score board operator who can't be told anything.

[SCalScoreKeeper]

Exactly Welpe,
We're a team out there and if one member of that team is not willing to learn or do their job then the whole system breaks down.

[JetMetFan]

My fun this week was a GV game where the home team's scorekeeper was handling that job for her 2nd time and the timer was working the clock for the first time. In February.

The home HC had the nerve to get upset with the scorers when they told her she'd taken three full TOs (she thought she'd taken two...the kids were correct). One day I hope to speak at the preseason coaches' meeting and remind them untrained table officials have a negative effect on every aspect of the game.

[SCalScoreKeeper]

JetMet-I take it this wasn't the school's regular crew? Yesterday was senior day at my school and I was pressed into service during the JV Girls game running the shot clock for the first time in 8 years.Officials said I didn't do a bad job for someone that out of practice.This should be one of the topics of said meeting-Coaches/AD's please make sure your scorer's table is staffed by qualified and competent adults.Maybe tell one or two horror stories.We're on the road next week and one of the school's we're visiting employed all kids at the scorers table on JV.Mercifully the football coach came in to run the board for varsity.

[zm1283]

I was standing next to the Home JV coach at the very end of the game. She made a remark about their table being really bad. I just kind of grinned and said "Yeah, we noticed". She was pretty frustrated too but knew it wasn't our doing.

[JetMetFan]

Originally Posted by SCalScoreKeeper

JetMet-I take it this wasn't the school's regular crew? Yesterday was senior day at my school and I was pressed into service during the JV Girls game running the shot clock for the first time in 8 years.Officials said I didn't do a bad job for someone that out of practice.This should be one of the topics of said meeting-Coaches/AD's please make sure your scorer's table is staffed by qualified and competent adults.Maybe tell one or two horror stories.We're on the road next week and one of the school's we're visiting employed all kids at the scorers table on JV.Mercifully the football coach came in to run the board for varsity.

SCal, I don't know if the school even HAD a regular crew. I've run into more than a few situations in the NYC public school where coaches are literally finding kids right before the jump ball to run the clock(s).

I'd say 95% of the public BV/GV games I worked this year had kids working the table so it's very hit or miss in terms of ability. The highlights:

*I've yet to find a kid who understood how the AP arrow works until I explained it to them. Then again, most schools don't even have an AP arrow at the table. They say it costs too much. I walk with my own. I made it with one of the blocks my sons used when they were toddlers.

*Timing time outs? I walk with a stopwatch, give it to them and tell them what to do.

*Shot-clock operation? All NYS GV games use it so we can't avoid it. I will say most of the kids understood it but there are still a decent number of play stoppages to fix it.

[just another ref]

Originally Posted by zm1283

- She would hit the horn for subs as soon as the whistle blew. I went to the table one time to report and three subs start coming on the court. I wave them back and tell her to wait on us to do what we need to do before hitting the horn. This happened in a game last week at a different school also.

You do know that the horn does not send the subs in, no matter when it sounds?

[zm1283]

Originally Posted by just another ref

You do know that the horn does not send the subs in, no matter when it sounds?

Yes, I am well aware. It's a problem though when you call a foul as the Lead, jog up to report it (And hear the horn immediately after calling the foul), and see 2-3 subs start to walk on the court before reporting the foul. Kids (JV girls players especially) are conditioned to just head on the court as soon as they hear the horn. I sent all of them back to the table before I reported the foul, then reported, then beckoned them on the court.

[Adam]

They need to be reconditioned by the time they're in high school.

[stick]

Originally Posted by zm1283

Girls JV/V doubleheader. In the JV game we had the following:

- Timer not hitting the first horn during timeouts. Had to remind her several times and she finally got it down in the V game.

- They had the arrow set in the wrong direction and didn't tell us until after the wrong team had thrown it in. We left it as is and the "wrong" team kept the ball. (I usually am good at keeping track in my head but we had to use the arrow about 25 times...fun times)

- Team foul count was screwed up. The Visitors had 5 to the Home team's 3 at one point. The Visitors foul and I look up and it's now 5-4. I go to the table to ask and the scorer has it correct but the clock/scoreboard operator had put it up incorrectly. I don't think they were communicating at all.

- She would hit the horn for subs as soon as the whistle blew. I went to the table one time to report and three subs start coming on the court. I wave them back and tell her to wait on us to do what we need to do before hitting the horn. This happened in a game last week at a different school also.

I'm sure there was more but I've tried to put that game out of my memory in the last 12 hours.

Thankfully she got better as the night went on and we didn't have any messes in the Varsity game. I kind of felt bad for her. She told me the normal guy was gone and she had not worked the table in forever. The host school district is kind of notorious for being unorganized and not on top of things, so it didn't surprise me much.

Those that work the table have a tough, thankless job. If I'm the R of a game I always make sure to introduce myself to the table people before the game starts and go over a few basics with them of how we like to work. That way we are least on the same page starting off. But sometimes mistakes are made, even by the best table people. I never, ever get mad at them. If a mistake is made I try to identify when, where and how it happened and simply correct it. To me getting mad at the table when they make an honest mistake serves no purpose.

[zm1283]

Originally Posted by Adam

They need to be reconditioned by the time they're in high school.

No disagreement here. You would have to see what we're dealing with in some JV girls games though.