Most people know that I announce our NRHEG varsity events whenever I can. Sometimes I’m off chasing one of my kids or officiating something, but I enjoy grasping the microphone and adding my little bit to games.
The past three years, as Jayna has been playing high school basketball, I’ve also taken care of the scorebook on the road. While I sit in the same general location at these games, my job is very different. For one thing, nobody hands me a microphone… most of the time.
Keeping the scorebook keeps me very focused on the game. I can’t afford to be too distracted since I have to keep official stats for scoring and fouls. Still, it becomes easy to get involved in conversations with people from the other team who are located at the table, whether it’s the clock keeper, the home team bookkeeper, or the occasional announcer.
And I’ve encountered so many wonderful people in this new role. I usually am sitting next to the bookkeeper for the home team, so we’ll spend time conversing about how our teams are doing, common opponents, and, of course, the weather. Quite often, I’ve discovered, the other team’s book person also has a daughter on the team, just like me.
Now that I’ve done this for three years, encountering familiar faces on the road becomes par for the course. I don’t know everyone’s names, but the familiar faces that greet me are always there. And I recognize them more and more when those book folks come to New Richland to do the same job, even if my job is different.
Robin Eder keeps the book at our home games, which allows me to slip into the role of announcer. And here’s the funny thing. People around the Gopher Conference know me in that role. When they see me on the road, even though I’m keeping the book, I’ve had to step into my job as a voice more than once.
Last year in Blooming Prairie, when Betsy Schoenrock was on the verge of reaching the 1000-point plateau, the folks there were gracious enough to suggest that I make the announcement when she hit the milestone. They said it would mean more coming from an NRHEG person.
This season I’ve been called on twice. I had to make an announcement during an earlier game in Waterville, a town where my voice is not generally liked. And then in Faribault, at Bethlehem Academy, I was asked to actually do the entire pre-game, including welcome, announcements, the starting lineups, and a prayer! I’ve known the activities director there since he was a high school teacher of mine; usually he takes care of that announcing, but he had to get to a meeting. I’ve never been known to turn away a microphone, and it likely was a shock to some people there, but it was a lot of fun.
I enjoy meeting people and getting to know them. People are fascinating. Everyone has a story, and it’s enjoyable to get to know those stories. The people at BA have been great over the years, the same in Blooming Prairie. But my favorite place to sit is always my perch in New Richland.
Larry Crabtree has been running the clock at most events for about as long as I’ve been announcing. Next year I won’t see Larry as much, especially during basketball, since he’ll get to travel around to watch his grandson play hoops for USC. I can tell you that the friendship I have with Larry is something I treasure.
We’ve been around each other for so long, for so many sporting events, that it’s an odd night if one of us doesn’t finish the other’s thought or say what the other was thinking. We agree on a lot of things about how the games should be played. We’ve worked through good seasons, bad seasons, and championship seasons. We’ve watched kids grow up and become tremendous athletes and even better people.
Larry cares about NRHEG sports a lot. He gets very passionate. I’ve got plenty of stories about that passion during games, but at the end of the day, he’s always done his job well and he won’t be easy to replace for the games he can’t be around for.
I can tell you this – if you’re interested, let Dan Stork know. And I can guarantee you that you’ll encounter an experience unlike anything else in sports. Because here’s the best part of sitting at that table: you see and hear things that very few people in a gym or on a football field get to see and hear.
We get to listen in on huddles during timeouts. We hear coaches discussing strategy. We hear athletes talking about things they’ve noticed and adjustments they’ll make when they re-enter the game. We hear yelling and we hear laughter. And it just adds to the magic of why we enjoy sports so much.
Those conversations with people from other schools, whether it’s here in New Richland or when I’m on the road, are fantastic. They give insight into their programs and their kids and their coaches, and it’s fascinating. On the road, I see some of the same great rapport between their table people and compare it to what Larry and I have developed. And that’s awesome.
I’ve got one more year of keeping book for Jayna’s team. I might have to say some goodbyes next year to those great people I meet on the road. But I hope Larry keeps doing clock on some occasions for many years to come; that’s one goodbye I don’t want to make.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is hortative, which means strongly urging, as in, “The hortative pleas for the coach for more time on the clock were ignored by the referees since they knew the clock operator was accurate.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!