A Day In the Life of a SITE DIRECTOR

For those of you who have never been a site director, allow me to encourage you to do so.  You can't really appreciate what a good one really does until you sit on the OTHER side of a tournament desk.  Here are some things that site directors deal with all the time:

1. After checking in at the site desk for your match you say, I need to go to the bathroom.  99.9% of players will say this when their match is called.   
2. Do you know when it's going to stop raining?
3. Can you call me on my cell phone when my match is called?  I'm going to warm up.
4. After inputting your winning scores one one screen in the PC you ask:  What time do I play next?
5. We then ask you what draw are you in and you respond, I don't know so we search more computer screens to find this out.
6. After leaving the desk and asking What time do I play next, you come back a 2nd time?  We've already left the computer screen in question #5 and moved onto other details in the software when you come back to ask WHO do I play next?  We ask again,what draw was that you were in...(we've already answered 8 more questions for someone else).  Once again, you don't know.  We find the draw once again, inform the player, we don't know just yet and the player once again leaves site desk.
7. After leaving the site desk a second time and asking What time do I play next, and after you come back the second time and ask, WHO do I play next, you come back a third and "maybe" final time to ask...What court are my potential opponents on?  Multiply this by the number of players in the tournament plus working a 12+ hour shift and you begin to understand why site directors feel like pigeons have pecked them to death by the end of the day and why they may not be so cheerful at 5:30 in the afternoon.
8. Player checks in for their match without their tennis shoes on.
9. Player checks in for their match in jeans and street shoes.
10. Player checks in and says...I've got to go get my stuff out of the car.  I didn't realize I was going right on.
11. The one that tops them all and angers site directors the very most but thankfully happens the least (but happens at least once in every tournament)... is the player that checks in, looks ready to go and 2 minutes later when their match is called they are nowhere to be found.  Mind you, your cheerful little pecked to death by pigeons site director has walked the entire site screaming your name for all to hear...and the more we search, the more postal we become...we've looked in all the bathrooms, we've looked in the weight room, the snack bar, checked out spectators near all courts.  Where are they?  IN THEIR CAR. 

Some tennis players can't understand why their site directors are so grumpy....Perhaps you have a little more perspective of their efforts now and will appreciate what they do for EVERYBODY in the tournament.  One day, I may take time to see just how many questions are asked in a normal tournament day...I'm sure the results would be staggering.  Give your next site director a pat on the back at your next tournament and perhaps one less question.  They will appreciate it.