This is the first of a weekly “rant” I will post here on the Daily Dose, each week Hoopsville is on the air. This is simply a chance for me to comment about something I either have a problem with or wish would be recognized a bit more. Remember, this is strictly my opinion that will certainly bring about other opinions.
So here we go!
Having gone to a Division III school, been a raved fan, and been apart of some great environments that fans have made possible, I appreciate Division III fans for more than just their loyalty.
But since when did the fans become game management?
I was at a game recently that reminded me that fans are both loyal and die-hard… and can over step their bounds. That reminder brought on many thoughts, but I will start with this.
RELAX!
Relax when the scoreboard operator makes a simple and honest mistake.
Relax when they don’t do something fast enough for you.
And relax and give them the courtesy and the dignity to fix the problem without you yelling at them at the top of your lungs.
Would you want someone yelling and screaming at you when you make a simple mistake at your job?
At this particular game, there were several times when the scoreboard operator simply hit the wrong button or didn’t act fast enough for some fans. The result was a tirade of yelling – even cursing – from some fans until the problem was solved… and sometimes a few comments afterward for good measure.
I kept asking myself – and was tempted to ask them – when exactly was the last time YOU actually ran a scoreboard, clock, or simply were game management?
One occasion, there was a jump ball called and on the inbounds play, the ball was passed immediately inside and a basket made. The time it took for the ball to be inbounded and the shot made was all of three seconds. But in that amount of time, several fans already started their abuse towards those working the scorers table to switch the possession arrow!
Are you kidding me?!
You feel you need to tell – practically demand –when the possession arrow should be switched?!
What gives you the right?!
Let the people do their jobs!!!
The arrow was being changed just as the fans started their abuse from the bleachers above.
And if you notice when this abuse occurs… I have found that most times it’s the visiting team’s fans who are the ones throwing around the abusive words.
Give the game management and the rest of us fans, media types, and others at the game a break!
I can appreciate if you are not happy with the ref’s calls (that has several rants lined up for another time!) or with the frustrations you must have while watching your team … son … or daughter play. But, you have no right to come down on those working at the scores table, MOST especially if they are students making minimum wage.
This includes if they accidentally post the wrong score!
So stop wasting your breathe – and our hearing – by being a bully those working as game management.
Good advice.
working the scoreboard definitely isn’t as easy as some people think, especially if there is only one person doing it (note: this doesnt include shot clock). I did it for the first time in a real game situation two years ago for a JV game, and I tell you what, it wasn’t pretty. I made a multitude of mistakes, but I was nervous about making mistakes even though i had operated it polenty of times in practice. Before I became manager here at Lynchburg, I always thought that it was a piece of cake to operate the clock and the scoreboard, I found out the hard way it wasn’t! As crazy as it may sound to some, it takes practice to get good at it and you have to learn how to multitask, which can be a problem at the beginning.
I would like to add to your absolutely correct rant by saying; Visiting coaches need to RELAX also. Most of the time when a student is working the game they are so freaking nervous they’ll make a mistake. Any coach, opposing or otherwise shouldn’t be worried about it. I was recently at a game wherea student who was working the scoreboard made a couple of mistakes in the first half with the score. Once she made the second mistake he began yelling at the table to “pay attention and know what they are doing” much less politely. Then he spent the second half commenting a little too loudly to his assistants to make sure the score was right after every basket his team scored. It was a neutral site game so nobody was trying to cheat him, and by the way his team won by 29. Not only do fans need to relax and worry about cheering on their teams, coaches should RELAX and just coach their kids.
As an associate AD, who has worked the scoreboard, and who also handles SID duties, I say “Amen” to the rant, and to the comment above mine. I can not begin to tell you how many coaches (mostly visiting as that’s the end of the table I’m at) have been told to “do their job” and let the clock operator do his or her job. If there is a mistake, it can be corrected. This isn’t a life or death matter. You don’t need to scream at a kid making Federal Work-Study Money about it.
Indeed. In fact, other than the players, the people working the scoreboard and such are the lowest-paid people in the building. Cut them some slack.
I would say the coaches should be included in this as well. In fact, I’m pretty much as neutral as they come and was roped into working the scoreboard at a game a few years back and was berated by a coach for not getting his player in before he reached the table.
Never mind that he could have sent his player in sooner.
This person still coaches in Division III, by the way.
The worst is when the offending coach who is berating personnel at a scorer’s table happens to helm a conference rival. A rather famous (by D3 standards) head coach, who was incensed by what he considered a slow trigger finger on the game clock in a mid-1980s game that his team lost on a buzzer-beater, made it his annual business to walk over to the scorer’s table before each and every game that he coached in that particular gym for the rest of his career in order to deliver a lecture to the clock operator about how he still remembered that long-ago game, how he expected the crew to provide fair game management this time with no funny business, etc.
It was a very petty, condescending, and unprofessional thing to do — and yet he did it without fail every single season.
But then there is the opposite, I know of one venue in the NJAC where you have to watch the shot clock closely. For more than 15 years I have seen the shot clock in this venue start immediately when it had to for the visiting team and always seem to have about a one to two second delay for the home team. Coach Brown always points these things out to the refs as they pass by, which is the correct reaction in my opinion. This is the same venue that quite often has a soft rim on the visitors end of the court for the second half. They also have a parking lot right next to their gym where fans were allowed to park and all of a sudden right before a big game they announced that all cars must be moved immediately or they will be towed, must be they wanted the income from their new parking garage to go up. Coach Brown always has either an assistant coach or inactive player watching the scoreboard too, he has had points added because of mistakes and has also had points taken off his teams score because the Knights were credited with a three and only made a two. I have never seen him or any of his coaches or players go off on a clock or scoreboard operator though. I have seen fans do it and it isn’t pretty. I also think many schools need to train the students doing it better and possibly train a few so they always have someone available.
AMEN to this rant. I am one of those Student game management people at a small division 3 school in Northeast Indiana. It would also help if the fans actually knew some of the rules that govern the game clock and shot clock. example this year with the new shot clock rule the clock is not reset on a kicked ball with the clock greater than 15 seconds. In a recent game we had a visiting fan yelling multiple times at our shot clock operater to reset the shot clock, and that he needs to learn the rules on how to operate the shot clock, this same fan was also yelling at us becase the shot clock was reset on a foul. So before the fans start yelling at anybody that is working a game clock or a shot clock, they themselves should know the rules.
Mike, I can understand a visiting coach being wary of a venue in which the scorer’s table is chronically providing home cooking. But the case I cited is completely different. I’m talking about a one-time incident — and an incident in which the alleged slow clock was strictly a matter of opinion, as well — that created a grudge that was milked for years and years by a coach who made a point of badgering the staff at that scorer’s table every time he brought his team into town.
bballfan. Thanks for that info. I had noticed that the clock shot wasn’t being reset on kicked balls and wondered if the rule had changed.