Photo by Bruce Crawford Janice Tisher is a scorekeeper who has mastered a craft she has worked at for many years.

Cold shooting equals a loss most of the time, in most sports. However, when both teams show cold shooting, in basketball, it is very bad for the fans that watch the game. Or, is it?

When both teams, in basketball, shoot the ball, and more than 75 percent of the shots are not going in, it doesn’t make it too much fun for the fans.

Fans start hoping that someone would put the ball in the bucket. If you look around, you can see that the real fans of the game support any team that scores.

Usually, when a team is cold, there is a time when someone would get hot, and you can see it in the gymnasium. Players feed off the spectators’ energy. Before you can whistle Dixie, shots will go in, and the crowd starts to get back into the game. It’s enjoyable all the way around.

However, sometimes players aren’t possessing the energy, and the fans need to keep plugging along and cheering, hoping the players will feed off of that energy.

I would also like to give some credit to the men and women in stripes at the table. Their job is tough, very tough on nights when there is “all-out” action. They can’t take a time-out to catch up. They must be on the ball, 24-7. They can hope the game gets slower, so they can have an easy night, but that doesn’t come by very often. Most scorekeepers don’t want it too.

They get into a rhythm, and hope that their team makes more shots than the other team. They have a very tough job, and if you get the chance, tell them you appreciate them and what they do for the kids. There are not as many old-timers left that continue to keep doing what most people take for granted.

Janice Tisher from River High School is one of these scorekeepers I’m talking about. She has been doing it for many, many, many years, and she is, by far, a lady who knows her craft.

She works at it, just like the coaches and players do. If you ask her, or most any scorekeeper, who scored and how many points did Johnny or Sally make, she will know and report that information, even though the scorekeepers are trying to to add everything up and get the points, fouls, time-outs and the possession error right all the time.

Scorekeepers also keep track of how many fouls each player has, and make sure that both books are the same. That is a very hard job, and I challenge anybody, that watches the game, to do what the scorekeepers do, game-in-and-game out.

Let’s give them a break, and wait until they are done. Then ask for the information. Better yet, buy them a water or candy to munch on during time-outs. Wait a minute! They are still working. Give it to them before the game, or when there is a long break. They don’t get breaks.

Their job is just as important than the players, coaches and referees. They are, to the referees, another team. They can make the referees good, or they can make them bad if they want to. Don’t try because I was once a referee, and I have seen where they have had scorekeepers thrown out for loads of stuff. They are the school’s scorekeeper, but on game-night, they are part of the referee crew.

I can really go on and on with the subject of scorekeepers. Let’s face it, we all are, believe it or not. The job of a scorekeeper ,as well as a player, coach or fan, each has good nights, as well as bad nights. However, they really can’t have a bad night.

In general, be nice to everyone. You can’t go wrong.