summer league observations....
 

Aside from "retrieving ball" issues, are any of you finding that you are more lenient towards the coaches in terms of "interacting with them"---in this summer youth league all the coaches are volunteers and although they are clearly enthusiastic and dedicated, I do find them to be less--shall we say--refined than your garden variety NFHS-type of coach.

The opposite, actually. I've found through my experience that being more lenient actually leads to more problems. Make your expectations clear, in a professional manner, and follow through.

Nope...in fact I'm a little stricter during summer ball with regards to conduct from the coaches than I am during the season.

I don't do a whole lot of 'interacting' with coaches during the season anyway, but I hold a tighter line on the conduct during the summer. Simply put if I have to drive 30-40 minutes away from my home to ref 3-4 games for $25 a game that, for me anyway, is not enough to be yelled at like we're in the middle of a late-season game with playoff implications.

This is summer ball. No one 20 years from now is going to care who won a particular summer league tournament or game. I'll hustle down the court like I always do, but for $25 I'm not taking a whole lot of grief from the benches. Not worth it for me....

I don't know about leniency, but I am less inclinded to explain my reason for a call to a summer league/youth league coach who is a volunteer.

With summer league coaches, I use one of the three following phrases about 95% of the time to respond to a coach:

1) I'll continue to watch for it coach.
2) Coach, that wasn't a foul/violation.
3) Coach, that's enough.

Maybe they've been watching too much NBA, where the officials do chase the ball for multi-millionaire athletes.

It Isn't Like Baseball ???
 

What? Those fans sitting in the thousand dollar courtside seats aren't allowed to keep the balls that end up in their laps?

Nobody chases anything in the NBA. The ball ends up back on the court.

It's like sorcery.

Not sure if you are being sarcastic. NBA refs often chase the ball down to speed up play. Happens a couple times a game.

Surprised that you would put yourself in a position which could turn out to "be very detrimental to your career" for $23-$25 per game.

AAU has a national coordinator of officiating? Can't believe that organization gives a darn in any way about officiating. To hear that their national coordinator is only offering $25 a game, makes it clear why so many of those AAU tournaments try get the officials for cut rates. No thanks!

I do not consider a running clock game that might last an hour "cut rate." Not to say that is a great fee, but it is not like if you do those games you are doing all the stuff you would during the regular season.

Peace

In my area, these games are basically assigning warm bodies. Most veteran or experienced officials do not even take these games unless they are basically "whoring" for the money. That has included me as well from time to time. I do not do these games really for any other reason but to possibly see more plays. But if the money was not a factor, I would stay home. Otherwise it is not that deep or no one of significance is evaluating officials based off of what is done at this level. And in many cases a person is working 5 and 6 games in a row. This just goes to show that we all live in different officiating cultures.

Peace

Who said it was running clock?
AAU tournaments in my area are always stop-clock.

Me too. I'm doing 4 JV level games next Sunday back to back and it's to put a C-note in my pocket. I'm going to Disney World next month with the family and with all the prepaid stuff I already feel like I'm hemorrhaging money.

And The Money Doesn't Hurt ...
 

Bingo.