Keeping Score

Clemson

by Gene | June 22, 2008

Sorry for this being a little bit late, but the dorm they put us in at Clemson didn’t have internet, but with the schedule we had, there wasn’t time. I got in a night early because I wasn’t going to make it on time otherwise. After talking to Coach Josh Postorino, the older brother of current Lynn University basketball player Luke Postorino, for a couple of months , I met up with Mike Morrell, the Graduate Assistant at Clemson, when I got there. He let me into the dorm and showed me the room I would be staying in. My roommate arrived the next day. His name was Shawn Haggerty and he recently became a coach at a high school in Tampa, and said he was going to come to our game at the University of Tampa. He is a really nice guy. Mike told me if I wanted I could meet up with him at 9:00 the next morning to do some work, so I did. He asked me to help fill balls with air, put them in LittleJohn Coliseum, and then help with registration. At registration, I helped answer questions about where to go and then went and made sure people were ok in the dorms. The first day, Sunday the 8^th, the campers were separated into three divisions, ACC for the younger kids, NCAA for the middle division, and NBA for the oldest kids. After dinner, we had the kids do different skill work, the NCAA and NBA played some games too. Lights out was at 10:15 pm, and at about midnight Shawn and I passed out.

The next morning, we woke up about 7:30 and went to breakfast with the campers and rest of the staff. The morning was filled with more skills and games.  Throughout the day Mike and Josh had me running around making sure things were in order and balls were where they needed to be. I was even handed the keys to a golf cart and told to go pick coaches up from one gym and take them to another.  Again Shawn and I passed out about midnight.

On Tuesday, along with making sure things were in order, Mike asked me to ref a couple of games and that night I got my first taste of a new injury, shin splints. They hurt, but after propping my legs up and running backwards, my friend who used to be a trainer told me to do the later, they felt better.  We also started the tournament this day, so players stepped their game up.

On “Championship Wednesday,” we had game after game. Teams that were eliminated still played some games or had other things they were involved with. I was the ref of a NBA semi-final game, where the Nuggets played the Rockets, and the Rockets won and ended up winning the NBA league. I was one of 2 refs in the NCAA Champion where Texas beat Memphis. In the ACC division Boston College won.

I enjoyed every minute of the camp and learned so much. I got to meet so many different coaches. I met all the Clemson coaches, coaches from high schools in the area, and college coaches from the area. A lot of the college coaches were Division II coaches. A lot of them that have been associated with Clemson remembered a coach that I mentioned I work for, Coach Heskett, who used to work at Clemson.

Next year I hope I can work it again.

Gene