Game Log 11/19/09: Getting back into it

Do I count this as my season debut? I guess I do. It was 7th-grade girls, and the primary goal was to get the rust off...to pack my bag, to run around a bit, to see if I could slow down and have good posture. I can't say I succeeded at the latter, but I was out there running today.

The biggest part of today was my partner; a real first-timer. Probably a 16 or 17-year-old kid. I tried to be kind and gentle, saying things like "Don't forget to blow your whistle if you're going to signal a foul." I'm not making fun of him; we've all been there. And, to his credit, he improved in the second half. A lot. He even had an experienced official from our association watching him, so we talked quite a bit at halftime. I'll admit that I was doing some ball-watching, but this game entailed it. I know that if I can watch off-ball in a 7th-grade game, I can watch off-ball anywhere, but today, I sort of needed to look out for partner. I hope I was gentle enough with him that he's excited to move on.

By the way, no matter what the book says, in this game, a third step was not a travel. These kids wouldn't learn a single thing if all we ever did was blow every travel. We'll tighten up sometime in the next couple of years.

GOOD: Handled newbie partner, let a LOT go equally, ran without incident
WORK ON: Slow the hell down, posture.