A new record!

[BktBallRef]

Originally Posted by adam

i would have told him he needed to call the assigner to get some officials for those final three games. No way i'm doing 7 in one day.

👍

[BktBallRef]

Worked 4 on Saturday. 2 on, 2 off, then the last 2.

Doesn't really have anything to do with adrenaline. It's simply a matter of taking a break to change uniforms, get some sustenance and a little rest of tired muscles.

[Mark Padgett]

Quite a few years ago, I worked a "competitive" MS tourney at a local HS. There were some kids whose dads were in the NBA, mostly with the Trailblazers. We played NF rules with a 5 minute halftime. There was 10 minutes between games.

On Friday night, I worked 3 games. On Saturday, I worked my assigned schedule of 4 morning games and then stayed to work 4 more for a guy who cancelled due to a "last minute" illness. On Sunday morning, I got there to work my 4 and the sponsor asked me to stay and do another 3 including a semi-final and the championship game. Since it was my wife's time of the month and I really didn't want to go home, I said OK.

Fortunately, I was scheduled to go in late to work on Monday so when I got home, I slept about 12 hours. Then I went to the pharmacy to get refills.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by SNIPERBBB

Don't know how guys keep going with taking breaks. I'd rather work straight through.

Agree.

[BillyMac]

Not any kind of record, but an interesting set of games.

More than thirty years ago, I did a high school recreation league in a nearby town. These are kids that either didn't make the high school team, or were good enough to make the high school team but didn't want to try out (grades, didn't like coach, didn't like discipline, etc.).

Not a very well organized league. No adult coaches, the kids coached themselves. Few parents in the stands. It was basically a step up from street ball, like playground ball with officials.

Only five teams in the league, and they played three games, one night a week. Do the math. Not enough teams, so one of the teams that played in the first game of the night, would hang around and play the third game of the night.

Well, what do you think that the kids did that had to wait through the second game to play in the third game? Remember, these are loosely supervised high school age boys, some who didn't want to make the commitment to play high school basketball, too many rules. While waiting in the parking lot they would sit in someone's car, listen to the radio, and drink alcohol. Not enough to get them totally drunk, but enough to really loosen them up for the last game of the night.

There were always a lot of technical fouls in that last game, a lot of ejections (we actually "ejected" players back then), and the game often ended in a forfeit.

What a stupid league.

[jpgc99]

Originally Posted by Danvrapp

Halftime of the second game, site director says we're adding 3 more.

My response: Who did you find to come in to work on such short notice?


I don't work youth ball like this anymore, but when I did I would help out if I was asked. But it is disrespectful to assume you will work the additional three games, and I would have told the tournament director that there is no way I'm working those games.

We are professionals and should be treated as such.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by jpgc99

My response: Who did you find to come in to work on such short notice?


I don't work youth ball like this anymore, but when I did I would help out if I was asked. But it is disrespectful to assume you will work the additional three games, and I would have told the tournament director that there is no way I'm working those games.

We are professionals and should be treated as such.

This is the other reason I wouldn't have worked them. By assuming I'm going to work them, you're guaranteeing I won't. My time is important to me, and if I'm giving you 4 games I've likely made plans for the evening with my wife. Bailing on those plans is, for me, a good way to sour her to something I truly enjoy doing.

[zm1283]

Originally Posted by Adam

This is the other reason I wouldn't have worked them. By assuming I'm going to work them, you're guaranteeing I won't. My time is important to me, and if I'm giving you 4 games I've likely made plans for the evening with my wife. Bailing on those plans is, for me, a good way to sour her to something I truly enjoy doing.

Yep.

I don't work much, if any, basketball in the off-season. I have in the past and I don't enjoy it at all. All the summer stuff around here is running clock. I've done anywhere from 4-7 running clock games in a day before, and it was awful.

[Welpe]

To paraphrase a friend of mine, got to love those that treat the officials like furniture.

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by Welpe

To paraphrase a friend of mine, got to love those that treat the officials like furniture.

What association trainer wouldn't appreciate it that his/her officials "get to see more plays." Isn't that one of the chief ways officials improve? More reps...more calls...more no-calls...
However, is it reasonable to assume any official doing that many games back to back to back to back to back would be making those calls and no-calls from any sort of correct position or angle during these games/scrimmages? Is it correct to assume that proper mechanics survive the rigors of the format? Would anybody submit to this kind of slavish schedule for the loyal purpose of getting better? No.
Short-cuts and energy-conservation tactics and "easier ways to do it" to which an official must resort instill more bad habits and unapproved mechanics and just plain poor play-calling. Few if any officials can be immersed in those poor practices and then just flick the switch and turn them off when it comes time for the "real" games. The time and effort necessary for trainers to reprogram newer and veteran officials who do these days makes them more of a waste than they're worth.
I'm for anything that helps officials, me included, improve. These "reffing mill" events don't do anything but make officials less good than they were prior.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Freddy

What association trainer wouldn't appreciate it that his/her officials "get to see more plays." Isn't that one of the chief ways officials improve? More reps...more calls...more no-calls...
However, is it reasonable to assume any official doing that many games back to back to back to back to back would be making those calls and no-calls from any sort of correct position or angle during these games/scrimmages? Is it correct to assume that proper mechanics survive the rigors of the format? Would anybody submit to this kind of slavish schedule for the loyal purpose of getting better? No.
Short-cuts and energy-conservation tactics and "easier ways to do it" to which an official must resort instill more bad habits and unapproved mechanics and just plain poor play-calling. Few if any officials can be immersed in those poor practices and then just flick the switch and turn them off when it comes time for the "real" games. The time and effort necessary for trainers to reprogram newer and veteran officials who do these days more of a waste than they're worth.
I'm for anything that helps officials, me included, improve. These "reffing mill" events don't do anything but make officials less good than they were prior.

This is exactly why I only do 3 games. I know from past experience the exponential drop in quality my officiating suffers from doing any more than 3 games.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Welpe

To paraphrase a friend of mine, got to love those that treat the officials like furniture.

Bingo. Part of it is our (collective) fault for working for $20/game. It's no wonder they don't realize we value our time.

I'm going to back up a little on what I've said.

If I've worked 4 games, and the next crew doesn't completely show and they need someone to work, I've got no problem offering to step in until the crew is complete.

It's the implied assumption that bothers me most about the OP. Before they add three games at the last minute, they need to make sure they have officials who want to work the games. I am not a captive audience.

[Nevadaref]

Officials get treated poorly by tournaments because they allow themselves to be.
People need to have enough self-respect to demand a reasonable fee for the games in the first place. Look at the entry fees that the competing teams are paying and you will quickly get a sense of how much profit the organizers are making, even considering equipment/gym/building rental.

What people must understand is that organizers approach these events purely as money-makers. They are not doing it for free or as a service to the kids. Know that every dollar that they don't pay an official goes into their own pockets.

If an official doesn't show, that is the problem of the organizer and whoever was hired to supply the officials. If they want me to work more than X number of games in a day, I simply consider it OT pay and let them know that I will require 1.5 times the normal fee for the extra contests.

[Stat-Man]

Originally Posted by Danvrapp

Working the King James tournament in Akron, OH on Saturday. Scheduled to work a 4-game set. Halftime of the second game, site director says we're adding 3 more. First time I've ever worked 7!

I can honestly say I handled it physically better than I handled it mentally. After that 5th one, I had to keep reminding myself to stay focused. Fortunately, it was all 5th grade and didn't have to do much more than run baseline to half-court, but 7 games is still 7 games...

Any other "fun" stories of working way too many games in one day?

At camp last summer, only 12 officials signed up. So, we had four crews of three for the entire day.

The schedule (games from 8a-8p) was such that a crew would do three games followed by a break before doing three more.

It wasn't too bad, but partway through the day, one of my partners had to leave early, leaving a crew of two for the next 2½ games. Thankfully, the observers for those games were sympathetic and let my remaining partner and I know that as long as we did our best, they weren't going to critique us unless we missed something very obvious.

With what was supposed to be our last break of the night, my partner were called to fill in on another court instead (so much for dinner). thankfully, we had a third official join us, so it wasn't too bad. The last game of the night was a championship game that went down to the wire. Despite being sore and tired, it was a fun game to officiate.

For the day, I officiated 11 games in 12-plus hours. While i enjoyed the chance to learn 3-person mechanics and get valuable feedback, I'm in no hurry to officiate that many games again.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Stat-Man

At camp last summer, only 12 officials signed up. So, we had four crews of three for the entire day.

The schedule (games from 8a-8p) was such that a crew would do three games followed by a break before doing three more.

It wasn't too bad, but partway through the day, one of my partners had to leave early, leaving a crew of two for the next 2½ games. Thankfully, the observers for those games were sympathetic and let my remaining partner and I know that as long as we did our best, they weren't going to critique us unless we missed something very obvious.

With what was supposed to be our last break of the night, my partner were called to fill in on another court instead (so much for dinner). thankfully, we had a third official join us, so it wasn't too bad. The last game of the night was a championship game that went down to the wire. Despite being sore and tired, it was a fun game to officiate.

For the day, I officiated 11 games in 12-plus hours. While i enjoyed the chance to learn 3-person mechanics and get valuable feedback, I'm in no hurry to officiate that many games again.

I'm noticing that none of your observers jumped in to help.