Timing device examined System would connect to referees’ whistles

If former John Bapst and Bangor High School boys basketball coach Bob Cimbollek has anything to say about it, time-influenced controversies will be a thing of the past at the Bangor Auditorium.

Some fans said the clock was stopped too long in the waning moments of Bangor’s stirring one-point win over previously unbeaten Deering of Portland in last winter’s Class A state championship classic. Certainly mistakes were made when the Russian men’s team upset the United States on a disputed shot in the 1972 Olympic gold-medal game.

These examples and many others could become things of the past if the Auditorium and other hoop venues around the state adopt a new timing system being promoted by Cimbollek called the Precision Time System. It is already in wide use nationwide at NCAA and professional basketball venues.

“What it does is take most of human error out of the timing process,” said Cimbollek, who is a sales representative for Nevco Scoreboard Company, the parent company of Precision Time Systems, Inc. “This would help take care of the natural human lag time and it works for many sports besides basketball: hockey, wrestling, field hockey and others.”

The system comes neatly packed in a padded briefcase. It includes a base station designed to interface with all existing arena, stadium, coliseum and gym time-keeping equipment; two belt packs, which are worn by officials to signal the starting and stoppage of play; and omni-directional microphones also worn by officials which are tuned to a specific frequency that allows them – at the speed of light – to stop the game clock anytime refs’ whistles are blown.

“You blow the whistle, the mike picks it up, and the signal gets to the scoreboard in a tenth of a second,” Cimbollek explained.

The possibility of sabotage by other whistles being blown in the crowd is negated because the system is tuned to the frequency of the officials’ whistles. Therefore, you can have two games going on within several feet of each other and the officials at one would not be able to affect the system on the other court. Other fail-safe measures are built in as either official can restart the clock with a push of a button on their packs, but so can the timekeeper at the table. The system can be adapted to any scoreboard and will easily run with a shot clock.

The creators of the system estimated that officials blow their whistles 75 to 80 times during a typical game. With lag time between blowing the whistle and the official at the scorer’s table actually stopping the clock lasting anywhere from a half-second to a second and a half, that could mean as much as 30 seconds to three minutes in lost time being added to actual game time.

“What I thought was interesting – and I mentioned this half-jokingly – is the way the games are scheduled now, on some of those long days, the last thing the MPA really needs to do is add a minute and a half of playing time to each game,” said Mike Dyer, director of Bass Park, which oversees the running of the auditorium.

The system currently costs $2,195. Extra whistle and mike attachments are $200 apiece.

“I hadn’t heard of it before, but I was quite impressed with it,” said Bill Fletcher, chairman of the Maine Principals’ Association’s Eastern basketball committee. “It would be something the MPA would have to give their blessing to. I know two states [North Carolina, West Virginia] already use it for their tournaments.

“We have a joint meeting in late October with the East and West committees and my guess is that it would be an agenda item.”

Dyer said he doesn’t expect the system to be rushed right in.

“I think it’s great. I think anything that takes some of the guesswork and some of the human element out of those types of situations is probably a positive thing,” Dyer said. “We’re interested, but I would qualify that with the idea that at this point, we’re not so interested that it’s something we’re just going to immediately run out and invest in to be the first kid on the block with it.”

Get a jumper on the season

The Bangor YMCA will be offering a new high school basketball league this fall for players wanting to get a head start on their seasons.

The league will feature two, eight-team divisions: one for girls and one for boys. Teams must have a minimum of eight players (grades 9-12) and maximum of 10. All players will play at least half of the game, which is made up of four, eight-minute quarters. The season starts Oct. 15 and lasts 10 games with two games per week Monday through Thursday (5, 6:15 and 7 p.m.) and Saturdays (9, 10:15, 11:30 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.)

The league costs $35 for YMCA members and $60 for non-members. Cost includes team T-shirts and a one-day clinic by Bob Cimbollek, who will serve as the league commissioner.

More information can be had by calling the Bangor YMCA at 941-2815.

Andrew Neff’s High School Report is published each Wednesday. He can be reached at 990-8205, toll-free at 1-800-310-8600, or at aneff@bangordailynews.net.