Problem chain crew's

[Canned Heat]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

Now, see, where I come from, that's no threat at all. It's hard to get volunteers to hold sticks when they'd much rather get a better view of the game and a seat, if there are stands around the field. So their answer would be "Yes" rather than "No", unless it's a child who wants to feel important, and that usually works for only 1 game. Sometimes games are held up for several minutes while they plead for people to hold the sticks. I've seen this in NYC & Chicago, and I don't imagine it's an unusual state of affairs. I've even seen a couple of games where it wasn't until after the opening kickoff that they realized they had nobody for the sticks -- or they were trying to get volunteers at the same time, knowing they didn't really need them for the opening KO.

I had 2 games this year...both JV games for a pretty solid program in this state. One where we had to do the "Boys, please put the phones away or we'll need to stop the game and find others to work for you...thank you." and another that had a 6 pm start and got underway at about 6:10 after the coach and some PA announcer help finally found a parent or two....one was a cheerleader mom and another a parent from the visiting team to work the box and the lead stick. Good stuff.....and yes, the HC was notified of chain crew needs at 5:45 or so. And no, it wasn't lousy weather. I've allowed a KO without a physical chain crew once when they were "just coming down now" and we stood at first and 10 for a whole bunch of minutes. I won't allow the KO if the crew isn't present. Seems to get addressed a lot quicker.