Rules of Engagement

I have got to say it, I am angry. I went to four basketball games last night. For a person like me that is like an addict getting a week’s worth of hits. I love to watch basketball. I went home angry. I watched the Jesup Middle School Girls’ host Union, than I watched the Varsity boys’ and girls’ host Grundy Center.

The thing that got me angry was the last quarter of the seventh grade girls’ game. Here are the events as they unfolded; at about the start of the seventh grade game Grundy Center arrived. Al Jones the coach at Grundy and I have been friends for years and we were talking, as the seventh grade game was unfolding. His assistant coach came up and started whining to “get them off the floor, get it over with, and do not let them call time out.” Finally I said coach these kids have invested time to play games so stop it. In the fourth quarter they played the game with a running clock, and the game ended in a tie 15 to 15.

It was about the time the assistant started whining that I got mad. First we ask our middle school teams to come to practice at six in the morning, they start at about the same time of the year as the high school kids do, then, they only get to play 10-12 games with six minute quarters. It is a time of heaven for them to play games. As soon as I saw the running clock I started to boil. What difference would have an extra ten minutes have made? Then when they made them finish in a tie, I contacted some of the parents whose kids are playing and asked them if they were as disappointed as I was? What would one minute overtime have hurt anyone?

I know the argument, it was a school night, we have space limitation issues, all of these are good but do not punish the 7th graders for these issues. In my last post I whined like this as well, but I did not give any answers. Well, for this post I have the answers to my rant.

First off we need to stop asking our middle school kids to practice before school. There is no need. We have two gyms now we can schedule them in after school. I believe that was one of the arguments for the new gym. Here is how we could schedule the gyms for all levels.



Week 1


Old Gym 3:20-4:40 Middle School Girls           New Gym Middle School Boys

Old Gym 4:40-6:40 High School Boys              New Gym High School Girls

Rotate gyms every other week



(If you have enough high school kids for two practices add twenty minutes and budget your time of that two hours i.e. 4:40:7:00 Varsity 4:40-6:40 JV 5:15-7:00 But I believe schools are size JV and varsity could practice together.)



On Wednesdays and game days for JV and Varsity the Jr. High will have to practice in the morning or you could do the following schedule

Old Gym 3:30-4:40 Middle School Girls     New Gym 3:30-4:40 Middle School Boys

Old Gym 4:40-6:00 High School Girls         New Gym 4:40-6:00 High School Boys



As far as the middle school games are concerned we must give them the respect they deserve and allow them to finish their games. Ten minutes late in a high school person’s life is not much. So a few whiners will have to wait, give the middle school athletes the respect that we ask of them. Second what are we telling the parents and fans of the visiting team when we do that? “Your time or your children’s time do not matter to us.”

I am sure I will disappoint a few people with this post, but let us be real and respectful with our expectations.