Game Log 12/1/2009: Officially underway.

I know I called the junior high game last week my "season debut," but seriously, I don't know that I can count that in good conscience. So, with a scrimmage and a jamboree under my belt, I drove a half hour out into the country tonight for my real season debut, a JV/Varsity girls' doubleheader. Small Rural School hosted Very Small Rural School, and won both games handily.

It's a little hard to focus on rotation when the girls keep turning the ball over, but we did, and I felt good about my rotations--good enough that I felt I could teach a partner a little about his rotations (we wanted him to move more). I can't recall a call I'd like back, and the couple of calls I had that brought about coach questions were easily explainable to the coach's satisfaction.

The JV game was out of hand in a big hurry, and by the fourth quarter, both teams were playing their C, D, and Omega squads. As we changed in between games, I told my partners that we needed to step up...that, even though these are fairly small schools and that the quality of play might not be stellar, we still might be in for a shock in the transition from the awful fourth quarter to a pretty good first quarter. We did step up. Home team led 20-4 and coasted from there.

Here was a good moment. I had a throw-in right in front of the division line. B1 threw it in to B2 in the front court. The ball richocheted off B2's hands and into the backcourt, where she recovered it. Coach made noises about "Da-da-da" indicating a backcourt violation. I was next to him, so I said "Uh-uh!" around my whistle. He said "No control yet?" I said "yep." He said: "That's fair." Nice! I had a similar moment with the losing coach when she didn't like a call I had on her girl on a shooting foul. She had her arns straight up, but jumped into the shooter. Coach had her arms straight up to indicate that she didn't believe it was a foul, but she asked "What happened?" I answered: "She didn't jump vertically, coach. She jumped into her." To her credit, the coach then communicated this to her player: "You need to jump straight up." Good.

I admit I got a little sleepy at times, but I guess luck was with me in that it didn't result in any real mistakes. And I felt okay about my pregame as R and feel the whole night wasn't bad. I'm ready for more.

THINGS I DID WELL: Call selection, coach management, rotations
THINGS TO WORK ON: Still mirror chop as T, felt my attention wandering at times
NEXT UP: Slightly-larger-than-today-but-still-small girls JV/Varsity matchup on Friday. I'm the R again.