run out without having to inbound (unless there was a timeout). Seriously, God bless you for coaching, it's a thankless job and hard for men to reign their competitive nature to make upward something more than a game.

Here's a true and funny story. The first year my daughter played Upward, I ran the scoreboard for the games. We had a retired ACC official volunteer to ref.

I knew him/who is was because he was also my 7th grade middle school assistant principal. He scared the living snot out of every kid in middle school. It was a campus-style school and if his booming voice (loud enough for a basketball arena) didn't scare you, it was the way he used the phone when he called a parent. He actually held the phone six inches to a foot away from his mouth when he talked - his voice was that loud - especially when telling a parent about some misdeed or mischievous activity regarding their child.

Anyway, first Upward game ever for me (and him), he comes over and starts telling me how he would signal me to start and stop the clock on fouls, out of bounds, etc. While he's telling me this I'm starting to sweat wondering, how do I tell the scariest Principal ever, and an ACC basketball official "Go read the Upward basketball rule book"? I think I just sat there with my mouth hanging open trying to get some word to form and come out in a respectful tone and manner. Somehow, two words, in the form of a question came out "Running clock?". Now, he might have been messing with me the whole time. But, he did say "Oh yeah, nevermind. Just start and stop when I signal time outs".

We became pretty good friends. He never liked me calling him Mr, never wanted to talk about his days as Principal but enjoyed telling about calling the 5th foul on Michael Jordan in a game and talking about his basketball based mission work in China. Awesome Man, I have 10 times more respect for now, than I did when he was a Principal, but I did have to help him out with Upward basketball rules. LoL