Scoreboard (Operator) Difficulties

Who do they say is one of the most yelled at people at an athletic event? The scoreboard operator. 

Let's just say it. Tonight was a rough one for me on the scoreboard for Ludlowe football's 53-44 shootout win over Ridgefield. 

It was a long first half, with a lot of scoring and a lot of passing, but was going fine for most of the first half. 

With under one minute remaining in the half, Ludlowe was leading 40-29 (yes, you read that right). Those 40 points came in large part to three Justin Toothaker touchdowns. 

 Ridgefield drove down the field and with under 10 seconds to go, threw a pass towards the right corner of the end zone that was incomplete with one second left. 

That set up a field goal attempt for Ridgefield's Cole Montanaro. He connected from 24-yards out to cut the deficit to 40-32 at halftime. 

Let me say, I stopped the clock as I believe I should have when the pass before the field goal attempt was incomplete. I know many people thought as the home clock, I should have let the second tick off and go to the half. Yes, I'm sure many other home clocks do that, and maybe I should have  I honestly didn't even look at the time when I was stopping it. Regardless, I have too much integrity and am on edge when I am doing the clock regardless. 

Then, in the fourth quarter, Ridgefield cut the deficit to 46-44, and could have tied it on a two-point try that was no good. Then I got really nervous. Could my scoreboard work impact the outcome of the game? Luckily for me in didn't come back to bite, and Ludlowe, Ryan Tompkins scored with 1:25 left to ice the game. 

In the fourth quarter, I also ran the clock when I was supposed to stop it, and then didn't see or hear the ref telling me the correct time initially. Thanks to Dan Seek for the assistance on that one. I was not to popular with the Ridgefield coaches in the booth on that one. At least that one got corrected and didn't impact anything. 

So no coaches were happy with my scoreboard work tonight. I don't blame them. 

Why did I just write a whole blog post picking on my poor scoreboard skills? Good question! 

Two more home games on the scoreboard this season. Hopefully it goes better than tonight.