This year, the PHS boys basketball was struggling to get managers, and I needed more community service hours, so I volunteered.
The season was honestly very fun. I got along well with the coaches and players and even helped get a second manager from the girls team. But there was one issue. The number of service hours I received for managing the whole season was only ten hours. In my opinion, that is quite low for the amount of work us managers have to put into the service.
We attend every game and practice unless excused by the coach for a good reason. We stay for all home games to control the clock and write up scores in the book as well as just stay to support the varsity team since we cannot actually manage the clock for those games.
We spend about one and half hours at practice, four days a week and three to four hours on game days twice a week. The season is about two months long. In practice alone, that is about 366 hours spent: take that and add it to the estimated 53.2 hours worth of games, that’s approximately 419.2 hours of what is considered service.
Aside from all the time I personally took out for managing, I had to deal with many rude people at away games and home games for small reasons. At an away game in Laurel, I had specifically planned where I would stand to record the varsity game around twenty minutes before the game actually began. Many family members saw me stand up and were aware I was going to record as I had the camera in hand, yet they waited until the game actually began to start making rude comments about my placement and threatening me with authorities.
None of what I am saying is to offend anyone of the sort or to complain about how I was treated. But pointing out what I did experience, I think it should at least be considered that any school sports manager gets more than just ten hours of service when we are taking out so much more time for it.