Some Monitors Can’t Stand Heat, Get Out Of Kitchen Slackers Flee In Their Free Shoes; Volunteers Step In To Save Games
As scams go, it seemed honorable.
Sign up to be a relief court monitor for Hoopfest. Get paid by the company to write a story. Use the breaks to watch the kids play. Walk away with the goodies Hoopfest gives monitors.
You know, get paid for that community service thing, which you would be at anyway since the kids are participating.
That was eight hours and 16 basketball games ago.
The Nike shoes? Keep ‘em.
The slick teal swoosh hat? No thanks.
The shorts? Who needs ‘em?
The court monitor T-shirt? Guard it with your life; today that is something to be proud of.
Enough court monitors picked up their goodies on Friday and went AWOL on Saturday to cause a serious crisis.
“I want my shoes back,” said court monitor chairman K.W. Knorr, who looked like he lost his best friend by mid-afternoon. “That’s the biggest flaw today. The monitors we have here are awesome, they’ve stuck with it through thick and thin. The only folks we’re disappointed in are the ones who walked off.”
The longest break some monitors had in 12-plus hours was to run, literally, to the restroom. Considering the heat and the amount of liquids consumed, that was a crisis within a crisis.
Court marshals went out of their way to keep cold Gatorade at hand and deliver a sandwich at noon, though finding time to eat it and keep the court running smoothly was difficult.
Knorr said it took a bare minimum of 245 monitors to serve the 217 courts. He said 280 signed up for full-time work with another 30 volunteered to work part-time.
Dozens of monitors had dropped out by Saturday afternoon.
“This is crazy,” Knorr said. “At this point we’re hovering around 225, 230. It’s taking a toll. It’s stressing the event.”
The more times a volunteer volunteered, the more goodies Hoopfest provided.
“They get more than any other volunteers do … because it’s the nuts-and-bolts of the tournament,” Knorr said.
Monitors picked up their stuff on Friday, just like the players. Because there are 217 courts, 217 monitors got Hoopfest sport bags to carry game balls and the flip charts used to keep score. Add up the complete package and it’s easily over $150.
“If they come on Friday to get their shoes and it’s hot today, some people say ‘Screw it. What can they do about it?”’ said Brian McClain, who is in charge of monitor equipment. “If they’ve done it before, they know it’s going to be a grueling two days.”
“We try to be selective in the type of people we get,” Knorr said. “This year we weren’t quite as selective.”
Still, in the spirit of Spokane, many court monitors accepted the challenge.
So did some fans, such as Curt Dady, who stepped in to help on the Rockwood I court (No. 173) for sixth-grade boys.
Stories like that of Dady filtered back to monitor headquarters at Sprague and Howard. Court marshals were asking for non-existent goodies to give the off-the-street volunteers. More volunteers are needed for today, beginning at 7:30 a.m.
It looks so easy being a court monitor. After all, they mostly stand around - looking quite dapper - and make occasional foul calls, depending on the age of the players. The hardest part is signing the players in, finding a volunteer to flip the score and signing out the teams.
Well, standing around really isn’t that hard - for the first four hours. And the fouls are never obvious when you want to let the players play.
Next time it’s time to rag on a monitor, think about it. Would you stand a few hours in their shoes?
Maybe the solution is to put the payoff at the end of the weekend, though the hat, shirt, shorts and especially the shoes are put to good use for the event.
“The solution,” Knorr said, “is just people living up to their commitment. Are they coming to Hoopfest to support what this event is all about or are they scamming shoes?”
I really want my shoes back.”
By the way, thanks Curt.
Does anyone know how my kids did?
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo