A Roster on Monday

 

It's an active week but tonight is my lone quiet evening.

It's a perfect night for doing laundry and stuff around the house.

I realize that doesn't make for a compelling post, but sometimes we take what we have.

It's all we can do.

Oh, I'll be busy the rest of the week in a variety of ways before Greenwich hosts Bishop Hendricken on Friday afternoon.

The process of preparing for a high school game is generally the same. I go about securing space to work and getting team rosters before digging for other nuggets. Of course, I'm always monitoring weather conditions, equipment, and whatever adjustments I need to make regarding that.

Since Friday's game is at Cardinal Stadium, space is all set. Weather will only be an issue to get the equipment to and from my car. Otherwise, Dan and I will be indoors with air conditioning and heating as necessary.

I'm sure I've alluded to the process of securing rosters being often brutal. My email to a contact at Salisbury went unanswered last week but I was able to get their roster via Brunswick. Eventually, I discovered Salisbury had a program that they created with both team rosters and other information.

It was heavenly.

But, as you know, I've scuffled to get rosters in other situations, such as West Haven in week one of this season. As always, I eventually got it but it doesn't make for appropriate preparation.

And that happens. A lot. There were so many times I was told I could get a basketball roster "out of the scorebook" at the game site. Not ideal, of course.

I got a nice gift today when I was searching for information on Bishop Hendricken, who is frequently known just as "Hendricken."

I discovered that I didn't need to rely on MaxPreps (dangerous) or hope that someone at the school would respond to me.

A website maintained by the Rhode Island Interscholastic League had the roster on it.

Euphoria.

This now leads me down the path of identifying their skill players, who are the names that I will call more than anyone else. Who is their quarterback, running backs, receivers, leading defenders, kicker, punter, and so on?

Oh, there's more, such as looking for statistics, and you need to know that not everyone makes those available. 

It's a lot of detective work.

Literally, everything begins with a roster and I know that, at worst, I can call a game with just that. That is not my preference of course, but sometimes it's all you have in the process or when time is an issue. From there, I have to trust my instinct and hopefully get online.

It happens a lot to me. Can I pull a rabbit out of my hat and do a game at the last minute? Sure, I can. That's part of the fun. Part of the challenge.

So, in the case of Bishop Henricken in Rhode Island, it's nice to see that I could download their roster and format it the way I like it four days before kickoff.

It shouldn't be a luxury. It should be an expectation.