New Experience 2/26/2021(5hrs)

OHSAA Playoff game. I took a step back tonight to see how different this experience would be, and this is the first time that fans would be allowed in a Columbus City School venue. This is a whole different experience. The school itself was able to sell up to 60 tickets and have a strict guest list for spectators. This is a new experience for me personally because this is the first time that a gym will be semi full of media personnel and spectators. Mario did a fantastic job with having full control over all situations with communication and transportation efforts. Through all these experiences, we finally had our first issue arrive. Of course, it had to take place during a playoff game. The scoreboard went out, and the wires were burning underneath near the bleachers. Basketball settings were not working but the volleyball settings were and that’s not good enough to complete with contest. I had to find the additional clock device and try to get it connected to the scoreboard and that still didn’t work. We had a long delay to try to fix the problem as quick as possible. Fans were getting restless, but we finally found a solution. We had to use a digital scoreboard that you normally see in AAU tournaments or in little league games. This is not a good look for Columbus City, but we worked effortlessly to make sure everybody had a great experience. Mario found another solution and actually fixed the scoreboard by the start of the 4th quarter. It showed me how determined he was. Vincent Clarno came to make sure all of our technical difficulties were solved and gave us additional information to contact an electrician specialist if this problem happened again. The game went on and was completed. We were able to use locker rooms, and the opponent used the band room as their locker room. Post-game cleanup took a little longer than normal because of all the people that were in attendance. The City league got a win tonight. It was a good experience to see how operations work in a playoff game.