Illegal Screen

We're moving.

2010-08-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

I've decided to forgo anonymity and head over to a new location. Anyone who has been reading here in the past is welcome over there.

The most important part: I'm using my name over there, and will therefore not allow just anyone to read my gamelogs. Those posts will be password-protected.

However, if you've been a regular reader here, I want you to continue to read over there. So please click on the "How to access password-protected posts" link in the banner and follow the directions (which means emailing me).

Here's the link. Head on over for Part Two of this blog's adventure.

Camp

2010-03-09T20:41:00.001-08:00

I didn't attend a camp last year. The February birth of my son meant I didn't want to invest time or money in anything like that.

Which means that this year, I want to go to a camp.

We have a local camp I attended two years ago, back in the I-want-people-around-here-to-see-me phase. I learned a fair amount, and I suppose I could head back there. However, there's a perception issue. As I'm moving up in this association, I don't want to put myself in the position of guy-who-still-has-to-learn-from-the-top-dudes-in-the-association. It's not that I don't have any improvement to make--I do. But perception is reality, and as I'm becoming a local crew chief quite often, I'm not sure I want to put myself back in that position again.

So I recalled a camp I went to ten years ago. It was tied to a girls' AAU tournament that drew great players from all around the country. I remember knowing I was reffing some damn fine talent when I walked into a gym and passed Tara VanDerVeer walking out.

I received a LOT of good feedback that year, but in retrospect, I didn't know what the hell I was doing. So I'm curious as to what I'd get out of it if I returned.

The problem? It's $450. That's about a third of what I make officiating every year.

That's too much. I won't pay it. (Last time I went, I was on a scholarship.)

So I'm sort of poking around, looking for a cheaper place to go that won't necessitate a hotel but won't cost more than $175...$200 at the absolute most.

And I'm not optimistic. This may be a camp-free year.

(It will not, however, be without honest-to-goodness workouts. It's not just the reffing. It's that being a dad makes me want to live longer. Oh, and as the kid gets bigger, I need to develop some strength to carry the dude.)

Game Log 3/8/2010: Afterthought

2010-03-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

After my most excellent final games, there was a danger of overlooking the last couple of junior high boys ballgames I had yesterday. But I geared up for it, knowing that the top junior high boys games I had about six weeks ago were pretty high-quality, and I had one of the same teams.

Didn't need to gear up. With four officials there, we figured (and we later determined incorrectly, alas) that my partner and I were on the lesser court with JV junior high players.

In retrospect, we should have stepped up and taken the better games. My partner was a fellow varsity official, and we were a better crew for the more challenging game. But it didn't seem worth a fight, and two of the other guys (including my partner) insisted that my partner and I were on the lesser court. It doesn't matter--pay is the same--except that there were some complaints from the upper gym...they weren't calling fouls, one of the guys wasn't crossing halfcourt, etc. But anyway, it's over.

We sort of coasted through our games...seldom switched on fouls (running clock makes this not merely evidence of laziness). Both games were blowouts; neither had any issues from anyone. I remember nothing except trying to stay focused so that it didn't bungle the end of my year. We got through without any issues...and now the year is officially done. 40 games. Nice round number.

GOOD: Call selection in low-quality game, attempted partner communication (although he seldom looked at me)
WORK ON: Stay in shape (groin was barking due to a 3-week exercise-free break), don't get lazy

NEXT: I want to go to camp, but I don't want to spend more than $175. I therefore may not go to camp. More to follow...imminently.

09/10 Season In Review

2010-02-20T20:26:00.000-08:00

I'll ignore the junior high games I have in three weeks' time, and say that my season officially ended with the marvelous games I had 9 days ago. And I will now continue the rich tradition of giving myself honest feedback at the end of the season (a tradition that went into hiatus last year due to the birth of my son).

First, the numbers:

I officiated 38 games this season:

14 girls' varsity
11 girls' JV
5 boys' varsity
2 boys' JV
1 boys' freshman
4 boys' junior high
1 girls' junior high

This compares favorably to the last two seasons, when I had a lot more freshman games. I was used almost exclusively on JV/Varsity doubleheaders this year. Additionally, I was the crew chief for about 75% of my games this year. I take both of these to be a sign of trust from my assignor, which I take seriously.

Those of you who read this regularly know that I can be pretty hard on myself. In fact, just a couple of years ago in this space, I quite honestly said that I had not had a very good year.

But this was probably my best year I've ever had.

First of all, empirically, the games went well. I've just read all 38 game logs, and there was only one night that I wasn't happy at the end of it--and that was just because of one call. Other than that, I handled every game that came my way smoothly. When I was being sent to tiny schools as crew chief, I got us through the games smoothly. When I was surprised with a tough boys' game, I certainly felt the challenge (and the coaches weren't necessarily fans), but the game went as well as I can imagine it could. Can I handle [REDACTED]? Yep. I can get the crew back together to have a decent second half. And finally, when I had a close, important girls' game late in the year, it was honestly the best night of my reffing life.

I look back over the year and I feel nothing but competent. I kept writing "coach management" down as a thing I did well, and I think it's because I'm only now figuring out what to listen to, what to ignore, and what to shut down. My partners give me pretty good evaluations, and my assignments, as I said above, get a little better every year (this was the first year I was assigned any boys' Varsity games that were not attached to girls' games).

So I will give myself a pat on the back. Yay me.

I do think I managed to improve quite a bit this year in slowing down at the spot. I'm not saying so many stupid things as the whistle falls out of my mouth anymore. And when I watched myself on the videotape, I still cringe a little at my physical appearance, but I do think I've improved at least a little bit. I do plan on spending a little money this summer to get a personal trainer, and will fire off an email to a triathlete fellow ref as soon as the playoffs wind down.

As far as stuff I keep seeing in the "things to work on" area, there are two.

1. MENTAL FATIGUE. As it happens, the basketball season coincides with the busiest part of the year in my day job. Add a baby to the mix, and I sort of didn't get enough sleep. I noticed, especially in December, that I was mentally less than with it on the floor sometimes. I stopped commenting about that in January and February. I don't think it's that I was less tired...somehow I adjusted. But, nonetheless, I need to be careful to take care of me a bit more next year--be sure I sleep enough and don't arrive at the gym tired. It isn't a good thing.

2. CALLING TOO MUCH AS LEAD. This continues to be an issue. I can't seem to lay off the call across the paint when I'm lead. I've put this down for the past couple of years, and I still need to hold off on those whistles just a bit. This is true on drives and on some rebounds as well...I need to trust my partners on the former and be sure I have a good angle on the latter. I don't trust the blanket statement I hear that "almost all calls should come from the C and T." If it happens in my area, and I'm L, and I have a good angle, isn't that what I have a whistle for? But I do get this feedback often enough that I need to re-commit to this next year.

It's going to be a busy summer...minor surgery will take away a couple of weeks, and a buddy's wedding another week, and a possible business-related trip one more...but I still feel like it's time for camp. Not the local association's camp, either...I feel like putting myself in the "learner" position there over and over actually hampers people's perceptions of me. Instead, I think I'd like to head to a bigger camp across town--the same one I went to 10 years ago. Back then, I was in over my head. This time, I think it will really help more...going at a time when I'm better able to handle the suggestions.

HOWEVER, I think I know what I'll get...a lot of people saying "You don't run well." Why pay $250 for that? Maybe I just focus on the personal trainer this summer instead. I must decide...

Again, thanks to anyone who reads this. You keep me honest and accountable. And that helps, even in as good a year as this one.

Massive ovation for me

2010-02-20T19:30:00.000-08:00

Had a freshman girls' game slated for Thursday.

My brother was in from out of town with his family, and I invited him out to watch me work. The game was a ways out in the boonies--far, far from their hotel--so I was flattered they came out. I met them for a pre-game meal. My brother asked if he could passionately, loudly cheer for us when we came out. I said "please, please don't."

On top of the fact I was being watched, I was eager to end the season on a good note. We were on are way there--we got there early, had a good pre-game, and headed to gym #2.

When I got there, there were no teams, no coaches, and no nothing...just my brother and his family.

Clearly, there was a scheduling snafu.

So I figured--what the hell. As I walked onto the empty floor, I put my hands above my head and started running around the court, getting all the applause I possibly could from the only four people in the gym. They did not disappoint. It was loud.

Two minutes later, a freshman coach came in and said "didn't they tell you the visiting team doesn't have a freshman squad?"

Nope, they didn't. So, while I'm happy to get paid for not working, and I'm pleased to have a mistake-free night where I didn't even break a sweat, I'd have rather had the game, especially since I inconvenienced my brother. But the big ovation was nice.

Net result: my season is over. And I'll blog a season-in-review within a couple days.

Game Log 2/11/2010: This is what it's all about.

2010-02-12T14:14:00.000-08:00

Loads of games last night, which means that everyone is in use, which means that I got bumped up to R in a pretty high-profile game: the best girls' team in our area, which has shown signs of vulnerability lately, seeing if it could continue an ungodly winning streak. I was excited to get switched to this game from being U on a less-high-profile game.

(Side bar: I never complain about my assignments, natch, since pretty much any game is a good game, an important game--note I said high-profile above rather than "big" or "important"--and all that. I like every game. But in the Sally Field "they like me, they really like me" sense, being R on this game means that I continue to make progress on big games.)

It turned out to be a tremendous night. It started with a very sedate blowout JV game. All I will remember from this one is that we set the coaches box a bit too high for the coach to coach effectively. I twice had to move an annoyed coach back into the box...but the box meant she was constantly having to look around the C official. Tough to coach. Partner suggested we expand the box at halftime, and we did.

Then came the varsity game--one which, due to the impressive nature of the favored team, had local TV and lots of fans present. Favorite did not come out and blow the game away early. It was tied after one. Favorite led by two at the half. There was almost nothing from either coach. Favorite picked up the first four fouls of the game, which led me to worry we'd have that coach on our backs for the game. But not so much--after foul #4, he barked at his kids: "Four fouls in three minutes. Use your feet!" Thank you, coach. I'd have said that myself if I could have.

Then, a big foul on favorite. Underdog sets a screen that favorite pushes through, knocking her over. She may have even lost teeth, at least according to underdog coach (fortunately, no blood). I reported the foul and beckoned coach. Favorite coach actually said to me "She was moving!" I hope my smirk wasn't too bad when I gave the only response I could: shaking my head and saying "no."

Halftime, partner said I was going too far downcourt as C on press. I probably was...I was trying to stay ahead of the pass by a step or two, but upon reflection, that's 2-person thinking. There's absolutely no issue in being beaten downcourt on the press. I'd rather be a step behind that play than a step in front of it.

Underdog has a great third quarter. Favorite can't put it together. Underdog is up by four after three quarters, and I'll be damned, I'm presiding over an upset that would rattle the entire area, one that would make the newspapers all over the area--maybe even the state. And we're doing an awesome job. It doesn't really feel like I'm the R--we're a 100% team out there. Not much to say after three except "we're doing great, guys, keep calling what we're calling." I can only recall one or two coach complaints all night, and only the one at me. As I wait for the fourth quarter to begin, I remind myself...stay in my area and do a good job.

But the thing is, in this, one of the more high-profile moments I had experienced in 11 years of doing this, I felt 100% calm and with it. I would NOT have felt this was as recently as 3 years ago. In fact, comparing my mental state at the only really high-profile game I had in my former big-city home, it's not even close. I owned this one tonight.

Favorite came out and hit some threes, underdog turned the ball over, and favorite managed to win by 6. One perhaps-controversial call I had with a few minutes left--a travel on favorite after she caught the ball on a fast break but before she took it in for a layup. Several short toots of the whistle and stated "Up here, she traveled." (Why did I say "up here"?) I stand by the call, but I wouldn't turn down another look at it.

In the final few minutes, as underdog fouled in a futile attempt to get back for the upset, I found myself grinning. Part of it was a cat-ate-the-canary grin...we got out of this without a single big issue. Part of it was just complete satisfaction. I was trusted with this game, and I showed I was worthy of the trust.

And part of it was my knowledge that this was my last varsity game of the season, and that I'd get to ride this high all summer long. It just felt awesome. Didn't really have a game all year that I felt bad at the end of. I'll talk about this more in my year-in-review post later on, but I'm really happy with how everything went this year.

If ever I become disillusioned and pissed off and want to quit officiating (and it will inevitably happen, as I'm sure it does to all of us), please remind me of how I felt after this game. There's really no feeling like it.

THINGS I DID WELL: Called the right fouls, great partner communication
THINGS TO WORK ON: Less verbiage at spot, stay home on press as C
NEXT UP: I officially finish the HS year with a girls' freshman game on Thursday.

Game Log 2/4/10: I do not complain about partners on my blog.

2010-02-04T22:39:00.000-08:00

Girls' JV/Varsity doubleheader. JV was a dream to ref in the first half...minimal contact. Second half, we managed to get a few frustration fouls on Green as they endured a blowout loss. We didn't back down.

The varsity game was a challenge in all sorts of ways.

For starters, as I was about to inbound the ball to start the second quarter of the Varsity game, one of my partners [REDACTED]. Then, two seconds after the quarter started, he [REDACTED].

Not long thereafter, I had a first: I had to muzzle the road team's bookkeeper, who was barking at me repeatedly. He said he'd shut up, and he did.

Then, with about thirty seconds left in the third quarter, [REDACTED] The bench [REDACTED] I was confident that [REDACTED], so I walked up to her and asked her if [REDACTED]. But when I worked with partner on this, there was a communication issue that I didn't find out about until later. Anyway, we did the free throws and got to the end of the half.

When we approached the table at half, the road book--the guy I'd warned, was over by the home book comparing notes. [REDACTED.] That's when I decided we needed to get away from the table and into the locker room.

Once we got there, partner [REDACTED.] He said he was used to partners who would [REDACTED] in that situation, and that he was mad that I didn't. I don't remember everything he said, but [REDACTED.] I pointed out [REDACTED], but he really insisted that [REDACTED.]

My #1 goal, of course, was to calm all of this down so we could focus on the second half. I said so, saying "What we need is to get all of this behind us--end it all--so we can have a good second half." I brought the other partner in on the conversation (he had been silent), and he gave me some constructive criticism on my calls (I was reaching across the key as lead. Guilty as charged...I've been good about not doing that this year, but had an off night).

We then managed to go out and have a decent second half. My partner even [REDACTED] at the first time out (I'll look up if this was legal). We shook hands after the game and my partner said he was glad [REDACTED].

After the game was also a concern. As we headed to the parking lot together, the quieter partner mentioned a complaint that the losing coach had that we all agreed was groundless. But the angrier partner [REDACTED], which really made me uncomfortable.

All in all, I'm glad a wise man once gave me this advice, nearly exactly a year ago. It came in handy tonight. I tried to focus on my area and make the calls I needed to make and let [REDACTED] fade into the background. The second half wasn't too bad, actually...only two reaches across the key. Too many, but tonight I think I earned a mulligan. And I'll be better next time.

THINGS I DID WELL: Coach discussions went well, may have prevented [REDACTED]
THINGS TO WORK ON: Partner communication, reaching across key as lead

NEXT UP: Last JV/Varsity game of the year on Thursday. It's actually a biggish one. Not an even matchup, but first place against third (first is very far ahead of the field, though, like a horse race with Secretariat). I'll still look forward to being in that first-place gym, though.

Game log 2/2/2010: Hard foul=good for the game?

2010-02-02T22:51:00.000-08:00

Girls and boys' small-school varsity tonight. Two very strong partners--and I got to be the R.

Neither game was good. The girls' game was never close and wound up being a 10-point spread. The boys' game was pretty miserable--White won by 60.

The first game was pretty calm...not a lot of fouls to call. I don't remember reaching the bonus for either team in either half. What I remember is a minor struggle with the last shot mechanic. We'd somehow left it out of the pregame, so when the clock ran down, we had to communciate pretty demonstratively about who had the clock. (It was whoever was facing that direction.) Also a pretty weird coach complaint late. He said he heard a slap and how could I miss it. I honestly didn't know what he was talking about, but I was lead and away from the shot. I wish I'd said that, but instead I just said I didn't know what he was referring to, but if I'd seen what he was describing, I'd have called it. After the game, my partners said they both had it...the slap was hand-on-ball. I was able to say that to the coach before the boys' game. I'm glad I got a second chance at that conference.

The boys' game was a complete mismatch. I got the sense the losing team might get frustrated, and said as much at haltime. In fact, I said I was worried we were already passing on some stuff against the losing team that we probably shouldn't. We were able to go out and get a few early, but a very hard foul actually turned the tide in this game's manageability. The winning team was on yet another fast break, and I was lead. Loser came and chased down winner as winner shot his layup, and gave him a pretty hard body-to-body contact--and arm-to-arm too. Now, this particular gym has very little room behind the hoop, so the fouled player (who made the hoop) wound up banging into the base of the wall. I immediately came up with an intentional foul (my first this season).

Partner was the star of this show, though. The foul-er was high-fiving his teammates for what he thought was his strong physical play. Partner simply approached him and pointed at the hurt player under the basket. The fouler didn't know the kid was hurt, and he immediately felt really bad.

Physical play cleaned up a lot after that. In a crazy way, the hard foul and the hurt kid (who I suspect will be okay) was very good for the game. It calmed everybody down, and we were able to cruse through the final quarter with almost no foul calls at all.

THINGS I DID WELL: Positioning, partner communication
THINGS TO WORK ON: Coach communication, got too close to a play or two
NEXT UP: Evenly matched middle-of-the-pack girls JV/Varsity on Thursday. My season is actually coming to an end in a hurry--work commitments limit me to Thursdays hereafter, so I've got games on the next three Thursdays...and then I'm through.

Rules Guy

2010-01-31T15:42:00.000-08:00

This also happened: I was visiting a varsity game where there was an unusual call in the first half. I headed into the locker room, where there was a disagreement on the call, and one of the officials looked at me and said "So, Rules Guy, who's right?"

I gave my take on it (which was right, by the way).

I'm feeling pretty good, since I have my wife give me those Referee magazine quizzes every single month, and I know that I'm pretty good about assessing the appropriate penalty. All that hard work is paying off! A veteran official trusts me with the rules! It's an honorable moniker...I'm Rules Guy!

(By the way, as an aside, wife and I have fun with the rules quizzes. As soon as wife says "A1 has the ball..." I tend to respond with "Oh, A1! Whatever will you do today?" It's a laugh a minute. Maybe we need to get a babysitter and get out for a change...)

I then asked the veteran official: "So, how did I get to be Rules Guy?"

"Oh...you just look like a Rules Guy."

OK. So it's not my dogged determination to be right or my ability to get it right under pressure that he noticed by calling me Rules Guy. It was simply the fact that I'm kinda dorky-looking.

Well...I'll still choose to take it as a compliment. I'm Rules Guy.

I'll admit it...

2010-01-31T15:31:00.000-08:00

I can't be the only person this has happened to. It's towards the end of a tough doubleheader, and I'm standing for a free throw, arms extended sideways to signal a one-and-one. And suddenly, it occurs to me...

"Man, do I ever smell bad right now."

Game Log 1/29/2010: When the junior high JV coach complains...

2010-01-31T15:19:00.000-08:00

Challenging games on Friday. We had unskilled junior high boys who aren't quite good enough to be on the top teams. And I had a partner who was doing his fifth and sixth games...ever.

It's almost impossible to come out looking good in a game with players who--and I say this remembering my own junior high years, not to ridicule the players--aren't quite acquainted with their newly-long arms and legs. The game wasn't violent, but there was enough contact and violations that we could have blown the whistle almost all the time. On top of that, my partner was struggling, as I certainly was during my fifth and sixth games. So I tried to keep an eye all over the court...sort of had to.

Between giving encouragement and basic lessons at time outs ("Be sure to get your arm up when you blow the whistle!"), I just worked as hard as I could.

But the coach for one team kept chirping. "The fouls are ten to four!" "You can't let him plow in like that!" I talked to her once, saying that I wasn't going to listen. She kept it up. Finally, I said this during a free throw:

"Coach, this is a challenging game, and I have a partner who is new. I'm not going to listen to you today."

As soon as I said it, I felt bad. I didn't intend to throw new guy under the bus, but I sort of did. Fortunately, the coach took it the way I wanted it to be taken. She said "He's new?" and then didn't say another word all day long. But next time, I'll want to be more careful...maybe say "still learning." A more buttheaded coach could have gone a different direction.

The first game wound up being a one-point game. It came down to free throws on a foul I called out of my area--too obvious to let my partner die with, I thought. Kid made one of two. Losing coach didn't like the call (it was not the coach I had to warn), but his team also had multiple free throws, etc. down the line.

Second game was a blowout with two very kind coaches. Same problem as before--lots of limbs and little control of them. We passed on a LOT. I felt bad because one kid got a bloody nose, but it wasn't because of a foul...it was just two kids reaching for a loose ball, and one got it in his schnoz (and I didn't see how, but it sure wasn't much of a foul if I did). Most of the game was spent beseeching my partner to get his hand up. I look forward to seeing the guy down the road...it's too early to tell how he'll do, but it's always fun to see improvement.

THINGS I DID WELL: Adjusted game to unusual circumstances, handled whiny coach
THINGS TO WORK ON: Geez. This game was so bizarre and such an outlier that I'm not sure where to go here. Maybe go easier on novice partner? Early on, I may have given too much advice.

NEXT UP: Small school girls/boys varsity on Tuesday.

Game Log 1/28/2010: Coach management

2010-01-28T22:58:00.000-08:00

Some ticklish situations tonight in my JV/Varsity girls' games. We had a winless team against a middle of the pack team. I was the R with two surprisingly inexperienced partners...this isn't a complaint, since both worked hard, but I had to do a LOT of traffic cop on 3-man mechanics. But still, it's always a surprise when I'm the Big Dude In Charge.

JV game was especially challenging, since the winless school had only 6 players on the squad. Those girls were also doing enough fouling that we could have made them go the second half with 4 or even 3 girls, but we held our whistles on the the borderline stuff, and perhaps a couple of things just on the other side of the border too. Winning coach was a little annoyed, but this was a least-of-several-evils situation.

Anyway, with about a minute and a half left, winless fouled out its second player and was then stuck with four. Winning coach told my partner she'd willingly pull a kid and play 4-on-4. Partner agreed. While that is certainly a sweet sentiment by coach and partner, I had to tell partner that this was against the rule--winning team had to play with 5 or get an illegal substitution technical (and then be required to put a fifth kid on the floor after the shots). Partner went in and reversed his decision. Nice move.

Much to everyone's surprise, the Varsity game was tied after a quarter, but Winless couldn't keep it together after that and wound up losing by several dozen. We called the game properly, I think--didn't ever ease up (they pretty much didn't let us). I'm proud of my coach management from tonight. Winless coach is a good guy, polite throughout. Reasonable people are easier to deal with, but I'm still proud of how I handled some situations with him.

Case 1:

COACH: You've got to call them for keeping an arm on our dribblers! You're letting them get away with stuff you're calling on us!

ME: Coach, I disagree, but I'll look.

-Immediate silence. (For what it's worth, Winning team played pretty good straight-up defense, partners and I agreed.)

COACH: Sir, could you explain that last call before halftime? (This was early in the third.)
ME: Coach, without going into too much detail, let me tell you we talked that one over at halftime.
COACH; All right.

Oh, and one funny one, after winless absolutely creamed a shooter:

COACH: I'm not going to complain about that one.
ME: [cracks up at table]. Thank you.
COACH: Yeah, she creamed her. Nobody could complain about that one.
ME: But people do.
COACH: Well, I won't.

Nice moment overall.

The game was as good as we could make it--on the whole, it came together just fine, especially for a pair of inexperienced partners on a varsity/JV doubleheader. I won't pretend it was perfect, but I was a leader, managing personalities of coaches and partners under some tough circumstances. I'm proud of the work we did tonight.

THINGS I DID WELL: Coach management, partner management
THINGS TO WORK ON: May have let the losers of the JV game get away with just a shade too much.
NEXT: Junior high boys doubleheader tomorrow (Friday).

Game Log 1/25/2010: Junior high stuff

2010-01-28T22:49:00.000-08:00

I'm a few days behind on my game logs--I'm finding that a boy on sleep strike makes it difficult to blog at night after the games. But I remember enough about these games to know there wasn't a serious problem. Coaches behaved well and kids (8th and 7th grade boys) were surprisingly talented. The second game came down to a last shot. I was lead when a kid for the team trailing by one drove and tried to force a shot. Not much contact on the shot by the defender, who knocked the ball out of bounds. Blue ball. They missed three shots in the final five seconds thereafter, and the kid who drove on my no-call was none too pleased, but I'd do it again.

Pet peeve: parents who stand back behind the baseline and bitch--in a gym with inadequate seating, there's not much to be done.

I also debuted new shoes in these games. Have a blister on top of my right big toe, but no sign of tendon trouble. Hooray.

THINGS I DID WELL: Call selection, stayed in area
THINGS TO WORK ON: Keeping up with quick, turnover-plagued boys

NEXT: It already happened. JV/Varsity girls tonight.

Game Log 1/21/2010: Good game with one bizarre moment; did I get it right?

2010-01-21T22:15:00.000-08:00

Freshman boys tonight. While doing one game in a night is not nearly as lucrative as my usual JV/Varsity boys' doubleheader, it certainly is a lot more pleasant.

What I liked about this one is that my partner (a third-year official) and I had a really good pregame and stuck to it. We said we would take care of the dribblers; each of us called hand-checks in a way that showed crew integrity. We said we'd watch off-ball; we had some good post play calls. While the home team got out ahead significantly, we never changed the way we called the game; the game didn't call for it. It's a good thing, too, since the visitors almost made a game of it.

Lots of shot clock problems. It's certainly possible we missed a bum reset or two, but we noticed problems often enough that I'm proud of our alertness. And I even put a coach back into his box!

One bizarre moment tonight that I think I got right (but I'd like verification).

Late in the game, there's a foul on White. It's the kids' fifth foul. Two shots (double bonus). I head out to report it, where the table tells me the kid is disqualified. Coach doesn't care for the call, so I provide a quick explanation which delays me a little bit as I tell the coach and the player that this is the kid's fifth foul. Long story short: when I turn to tell my partner about the fifth foul, he already has the kid for Blue shooting.

He misses.

What do do now?

I brought on the sub and had the kid shoot two. Explained to the White coach that "you only had four players on the floor."

Not sure this is right. What would y'all do in that situation? Ignore the missed free throw and shoot two, or count it and go on to shoot the second of two?

Anyway, a relatively problem-free night. I'm glad we were the ones on the job; we kept it clean and stuck to it throughout.

THINGS I DID WELL: Followed through on pre-game talk, crew integrity, coach management
WORK ON: Got beat down the floor a time or two, posture probably wasn't good

NEXT: While I originally had a girls JV/Varsity doubleheader scheduled for Tuesday, I had to turn it back due to a work commitment. In exchange, I made myself available on Monday. Net result: I'm doing junior high games on Monday. I'll use them to work on posture and slowing down on the spot.

Game Log 1/14/10: Surprise! Boys' varsity!

2010-01-14T22:41:00.001-08:00

Had a JV game scheduled tonight: two-man. Headed out there and handled it all right. Partner and I discussed things clearly, put together a few decent quarters, cleaned up the game, and headed to the locker room. We simply shook hands and readied ourselves for a surprisingly early trip home.

Problem: There were no officials in the locker room.

We called our assignor. My partner reached him. Fortunately--indeed--because he wound up heading up for a three-person game.

We needed him. It was a physical matchup--and it was probably the toughest boys' game I've ever had (not that there have been many).

Home team jumped out to a big lead and basically held on thereafter. And, in the second quarter, visiting coach became really pissed off at me. Down on his offensive end of the floor, visiting post player thrusted out his butt and displaced his opponent. He doesn't get to do that. Foul on Red. I wound up in his ear for the next possession. "Look at that in the post! Don't call it on them!" First thing I saw worth calling? A push on Red.

Coach was irate. He actually called time out just to holler. Didn't think it was a technical, but didn't really have much response either. Eventually, I just said "Coach, are you done?" He was speechless. He didn't want to say "yes," since I hadn't said "Gee, coach, you're absolutely right." He didn't want to say "no," either. So he said "Are you going to start calling that?" I just said "I'll keep calling the game as best as I can."

I did wind up warning him in the third quarter, which pretty well stopped him for the rest of the night. Red had launched a shot that hit the shot clock above the backboard (after the rim). I blew it dead and gave it to White. Correct call--as correct as it comes. Next time down the floor said "You know, that ball didn't hit the shot clock." How the hell do you respond to that--a simply false statement? I responded with "Are you done?" again, and then a warning.

One other weird play. I had a double foul on banging post guys. Shot clock was NOT reset, which it should not be. But in my mind, I got screwed up when someone shouted "Reset!" I thought..."wait, we just had a foul" and blew my whistle too soon. But I caught myself and said "Wait...no...keep the shot clock at 16." White's assistant coach--a former college official, or so I'm told--said "No! You reset it to 20!" I'm pretty sure that's the college rule, but I know damn well it isn't the high school rule. I wish I'd either been a little more assertive or not responded to the assistant coach at all. But I said "That's the college rule." When he persisted, I said "I'll look it up." Better would have been "Let's both look it up, coach, but it's the college rule."

I do think we were tending to catch the second foul instead of the first, but this game was so physical that anybody would have struggled with it. (Did I mention how glad I was that a third official showed up?) It wasn't an incredibly great game on my part, but it wasn't a crash-and-burn either. As I continue to move up, I'll take that.

THINGS I DID WELL: Kept cool with loud coaches, handled weird situations reasonably well
THINGS TO WORK ON: I was a little timid, and I think my posture was a little off.
NEXT UP: Boys freshman game on Thursday.

Game Log 1/12/2010: One stupid, stupid mistake.

2010-01-12T22:18:00.000-08:00

Worst game of the year tonight, and all because of one screw-up. It didn't impact the game, and I did fine in all other aspects of the JV and Varsity games, but with about a minute left in the first half of the varsity game, this happened.

White scores. I make my way upcourt as C. I head the coach say "Can I get a time out?" I toot my whistle.

Shit. Shit and damn and hell. Black was bringing the ball up the court, and I just tooted my whistle for White's time out request.

I did manage to say "Inadvertent whistle." If I had it to do over again, I would then have run away from White's coach and motioned my partners to inbound the ball again before White could call time out. But I didn't. I said: "Coach, I couldn't give you that time out then, but now the ball is dead. Do you still want it?"

Of course he did.

Black's coach said "Isn't that a technical foul?" I said "No, it isn't. It's a mistake by me." A minute later, at halftime, she said "Did they change that rule this year?" I don't think it's ever been a rule.

Anyway, an error that stupid really, really frosts me. I'm better than that. I've been having an awesome year, and even had a really good one -last- year. Then I up and do something like this. Crap.

It was a little bit in my head for the second half, but I don't think it impacted the quality of my calls or my game. It just sort of kept me mentally distant. Which, clearly I was to begin with, since it screwed me up.

I'd like to focus on the rest of the game--I had a few tough block/charge calls that I think I got right (and so do my partners), and we had good crew integrity and nice call selection.

But all I'll remember from this night is one breathtakingly stupid moment.

GOOD: Call selection, decent coach communication
WORK ON: Keep my goddamned brain in the goddamned game

NEXT UP: Boys' JV (alas, it's 2-person) on Thursday. Gotta shake the one whistle off.

This heckle is no more. It has ceased to be.

2010-01-09T17:27:00.000-08:00

I went shopping for ref shoes at the mall yesterday. The sore ankle freaked me out, but it looks like it's absolutely nothing--the pain was gone the next day. But it did freak me out enough that I decided I needed new ref shoes.

In the past, I've ordered them on-line, but after shutting down early for tendinitis two seasons ago, I've concluded I have to wear the things before buying them. So--to Foot Locker.

I was greeted by a very friendly, helpful clerk who put up with me as I tried many different pairs of shoes. I noticed he was wearing the old, collared black-and-white ref shirt. And in the midst of this, out of nowhere, it occurred to me:

I can't remember the last time a fan told me to "Go back to Foot Locker!"

It used to be one of the top five heckles in frequency. What I liked about it was that every pinhead fan who shouted that thought he or she was the only person clever enough to come up with it, when in reality about they were in a subset of about 15 percent of all heckles.

What happened to the Foot Locker heckle?

And all at once it hit me:

In our area, varsity officials now wear the grey (which I don't care for). Foot Locker salespeople have not made the switch. Therefore, during varsity games anyway, officials no longer dress like Foot Locker salespeople.

Heckle, we hardly knew ye...

Uh-oh.

2010-01-08T07:46:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to ankle pain--the back-outside part of my right ankle hurts--a bone-on-bone kind of feeling--when I point my toe. I can still walk, and probably run too, but I'd better see a doctor before my next game. I hope to heck I'm not sidelined--I'm having a great year.

Game Log 1/7/2010: Another good set o' games

2010-01-07T22:15:00.000-08:00

I don't like going to this gym because they put us in the boys' coach's office, and he usually is in there with us. We watch ESPN on his computer. There's really nowhere else to go (it's a very small place), so we just sit around and talk. I don't mind that, but I do NOT like the appearance that I'm hanging out with a coach for an extended period of time. I don't see a way around it, though.

Anyway--boys' and girls' games tonight. The girls' game was pretty smooth. These were very tiny schools (student body of maybe 100-200)--a tiny rural town school coming here to face a tiny religious school in a conference matchup. So there weren't too many skilled kids around. Didn't hear much from anyone, really, until late. With about 45 seconds left, White was down by 4. Green inbounded the ball and White pressed. I waited for the foul. No foul. Just good, stand-up defense in the backcourt. Green passed and dribbled. More good defense. The clock ticked down. Then I heard it from the White assistant coach.

"TEN SECONDS! TEN SECONDS! TEN SECONDS!'

Puh-leeeeez. I normally don't talk to assistants, but when I headed back down the floor with about 10 seconds left, I started to tell him there is no backcourt 10-second rule in the girls' game. He'd obviously been clued in, because before I could speak, he sheepishly said "I know, yeah." White hit a bucket with a couple seconds left, but lost by two.

When I saw the boys' teams, I was worried. Lots of big boys; I was ready for physical play. But each team settled into a zone and stayed there. Made life a LOT easier. Partner said we could have rotated more, but in a zone when the ball is kicked back and forth, I'm not so sure.

Anyway. Two weird calls. One was early in the second half. White went up for a shot, but while the ball was about waist level, Green blocked it. The ball didn't go far, but it popped out of the shooter's hands a little. He gathered it in while he was still in the air, dribbled, and scored an and-one.

White coach shouted for a jump ball. I said "Nope, coach...he lost control." To his credit, the White coach asked me for a explanation later, and accepted it.

Then, there's the When Should You Call The Same Thing At Both Ends question.

Green, who had stayed with White all day, totally fell apart in the fourth quarter, and were down by 18 or so with about 2-3 minutes left. They shot a three and missed. Partner had a call on the knock-the-kid-over-with-his-butt "box-out." The player had landed, so we shot one-and-one.

Coach and crowd were livid. Incorrect, but livid. They couldn't understand why were weren't shooting three shots.

Just my luck, though...About a minute later, White shot a three. And before he landed, Green threw a little forearm his way and made contact.

I may have scowled, since I knew how pissed off the losing team and their fans (who were already playing the "we're getting homered" card even though their team was down by 20 by then) would be. But that's a 3-shot foul.

Green coach was mad, but he made like a Jeopardy contestant and phrased it in the form of a question.

"What's the difference between the play down there and this play?"

I may have shown some annoyance, but I answered his question.

"That player down there had landed. This player had not yet landed."

There was no response. It's nice to be right.

I know that there's a school of thinking that, if similar plays at opposite ends occur, we need to call the same thing. But that feels chicken-poop to me. It's not my goal to be popular; it's my goal to be right...and I was.

I'm noticing an old, bad habit creeping back in...I'm saying stupid crap after I blow the whistle. The only call I want back all night was the first call I made in the boys' game...shooting foul...but not much forearm contact at all, and a helluva lot of ball. Nobody complained, but I didn't care for it. And I showed it, because the first words out of my mouth were anticipating complaints: "That's not all you got!" What the hell is that? SLOW DOWN, dude. Take a beat and you're less likely to say stupid stuff.

Another fine night, though.

THINGS I DID WELL: Coach management, in position, call selection
THINGS TO WORK ON: Slow down, slow down.

Next: Girls JV/Varsity probable blowouts on Tuesday.

Game Log 1/5/2010: Boys' doubleheader

2010-01-05T23:06:00.000-08:00

For the first time, I was assigned a boys' JV/Varsity doubleheader tonight. I've done boys' varsity before, but only as a part of girls/boys doubleheaders that the tiny-tiny schools do. These schools were merely small.

To be honest, I was quite nervous before the game, in a way I haven't been all year long. But I was a part of a good crew (including a 30-plus-year veteran), and the night went pretty well, all things considered.

The JV game was 100% uneventful. Got a moving screen early, flew through the first half without any bonus free throws, and made it through a surprising blowout second half (the team that was down by 10 at half outscored their opponents something like 30-3 in the second half. It was crazy.).

The Varsity game is the one I'll remember.

As my partner pointed out, it was a game that forced us to make a lot of decisions. Little handchecks, little bits of contact on rebounds, incidental crashes on loose balls...which ones do we like?

First, the Green coach was bummed because his team had committed 6 fouls to his opponents' 2. Then, the White coach was bummed because the next several fouls were on him. "We've had four in a row against us!" he said. I didn't see why that was significant. His kids kept fouling, and he thought it was ridiculous that they'd get to 15 in a half. Obviously, my partners and I did not feel the same.

The third quarter was crazy. Partner called a T on a kid for in-bouding the ball and then standing out of bounds for a few seconds. Coach's argument was "He was only there for three seconds!" The argument proved the infraction.

Then came a bizarre double-whistle. I was T on a full-court press, doing the ten-second count. I got to ten, tooted my whistle, and held up "Ten seconds!" Unfortunately, my partner tooted his whistle at the same time because White had called time out. We came together. He said he had the time out before the ten-second count. I said that it was close, and I thought it pertinent that the shot clock had ticked down 13 seconds. It seemed to me that, with that evidence sitting in front of everyone, it was the safer route to call ten seconds. We did. I stand by that.

Finally, I had the last shot at the end of the third quarter. It was an unusual gym with a clock at only one end, so I was keeping a corner of an eye on it when there was a steal and a break for White. I hauled my butt down the court, waiting for a possible crash on the breakaway layup and listening for the buzzer all at the same time. Stealer went up--and I had a block, a clear no-call. But I was taken by surprise by the second shot that took place as soon as the player recovered the ball. I had another no-call, but it's one I'm a little less confident in.

The third quarter therefore ended with some of the loudest boos I've ever endured.

Here's the thing: it didn't bother me. It surprises me, sometimes, to notice how much I've improved and matured as an official in the past few years. I was totally calm under great stress.

Of course, my veteran partner put it best, I believe. "Well, guys, we're not going to redeem ourselves in White's eyes. So let's just go out and keep reffing our game."

The best part: the fourth quarter was awesome.

Coach started the fourth quarter by saying "He was fouled on the layin." I asked "Which one?" and he said "Both!" I responded thusly: "Coach, I had a good look at the first one. The second one...well..." Coach nodded, and that ended that.

Not long thereafter, I had a stone-cold push-off on White's big post kid. Two hands on the upper back, and he then gathered in the ball for a laying. From my position as C, I had it perfectly, so I closed and sold it.

My mojo with the White coach continued. "He only had one hand! It was just one hand getting the ball! He can't have pushed off."

My response was 100% effective. "Coach, if that's what you saw, the you started watching the play a little after I did. The push was before that."

He nodded.

Man, do I love feeling competent. And tonight's games have given me confidence for boys' games in the future. I still have some work to do, to be sure--I need to be prepared for more blocked/challenged shots than I'm accustomed to on the girls' side. But this was a tight, stressful game in which I felt neither tight nor stressful. The game could have gone into the crapper in the fourth quarter, but it didn't. Most of the credit for that belongs to the players, but a lot goes to us, and I'm proud of that.

THINGS I DID WELL: Coach communication, rotations
THINGS TO WORK ON: Adjustments to boys' game

NEXT UP: Tiny-school girls/boys varsity on Thursday night.

Game Log 12/30/2009: One of the craziest games ever

2009-12-30T22:42:00.001-08:00

JV/Varsity girls' games tonight. Quite a challenge.

First of all, I've spent the last several days recovering from the flu (hit a temperature of 102 on December 26). Climbing up stairs was a challenge a couple of days ago, so a doubleheader was a stretch tonight.

What's funny is that the running wasn't the hardest part. For reasons I don't fully understand, it's actually more challenging to have crisp mechanics than it is to run--more physically taxing, somehow. So I slipped into some bad habits, particularly during the JV game (which was uneventful--I barely remember any of it other than a dead and silent gym). I even told my partners that I'd be saving up a little energy in the second half (mostly accomplished this by walking the last 5-6 steps in dead ball situations rather than walking the whole way). I was worried about my ability to get through the varsity game, but when the intensity of play stepped up, I was able to match it. No fatigue at all, which I'm proud of.

Coaches for Green were all very, very chirpy, and not in a kind way. They were mostly all over my partners, except for a carry that I had that they didn't like--he accused me of seeing something that wasn't there. (It was a great call, by the way. The dribbler's hand was on the side of the ball, but it came to rest there for a beat as the dribbler pushed it forward. Carry.) There had been enough from both coach and assistants that we discussed at halftime giving a warning at the next opportunity. Head coach gave us that about 4 minutes into the third, and partner whacked an assistant shortly thereafter.

Assistant insisted he hadn't said anything. I was opposite the benches, so I didn't know, but I don't believe my partner would make anything up...and even if he was mistaken, I really don't much care, since we could have called something on any number of other outbursts (and even had we not, there surely would have been another shortly thereafter).

Head coach tried to talk to me after the warning (but before the T). I politely said "Coach, you've been warned, so we're not listening anymore." That was effective.

Assistants asked me for an explanation on the T. I simply said "My partner heard what he heard." What the hell did they expect me to say? I was across the court.

Anyway, Green got back into the game after an abysmal start, and managed to tie it up with about two minutes left. Each team turned the ball over a bunch in the final couple of minutes, and White had it with 10 ticks on the clock.

I'm C opposite table. Last shot is mine.

Clean steal. Green is taking the ball downcourt. Bedlam in the gym. But she panics--thinks there's less time left than she does. She chucks up a terrible shot with 4-ish seconds on the clock.

It's no good.

Rebound kicks out the the elbow. ShoBUZZERt goes up. Swish.

I was ready to raise my hand and wave it off.

(Here is the only part of the story where I think I fall short. Normally, I'm tooting that whistle from the instant she shoots, shouting "No! No!" But this time, I didn't. Was I replaying the really important shot in my mind? Was I just a tad slow? Did I freeze? I vote for #1, but #3 is disturbing.)

Anyway, before I raise my hand, T toots his whistle.

Thankfully, neither of us went up with anything.

The gym is going bonkers. All of us get together.

"Did you have the ball in her hand?" partner asks.

"Yes."

"You had the ball in her hand at the buzzer?" partner repeats.

"Yes."

"Okay. No basket."

And the two of us turned and waved off the basket. Green and their fans were decidedly unhappy, but both of us had the same thing, so I feel good about the call. It was close enough that we'd have gone to replay if we'd had it at our disposal, but alas, non-conference small-school-in-small-city girls varsity games aren't televised.

I do wish my partner hadn't come in with a whistle. It rather surprised me, since the whistle was supposed to be mine. But it's all for the best since (1) I'm very confident we got it right and (2) we probably looked better as a crew, not worse, coming together on that.

Overtime was quite uneventful, and Green wound up winning anyway. In some ways it was a weird game--the calls just weren't coming to me in the fourth or in overtime, so I felt like a tad bit of a spectator. But how often do you get to wave off a game-winner? I can't remember another time. So quite a night.

THINGS I DID WELL: Maintained composure under loads of pressure (never felt even a little bit of nerves!), kept focus in varsity game in spite of not being at 100%
THINGS TO WORK ON: Possible freeze on last shot, lost focus a little in JV game due to illness, let mechanics get a little loosey in JV game
NEXT UP: My first boys JV/Varsity doubleheader. Small schools on Tuesday.

Game Log12/22/2009: I really need to learn to run

2009-12-22T23:18:00.000-08:00

I went back tonight to officiate the team with a coach I'd had to T up a couple of weeks ago. I was on the alert for any kind of grudges, and things wound up being pretty uneventful--save one little comment.

First, the JV game. It was smooth and quiet--not a lot of fouls, and a fairly light, clean game. The only thing that went wrong was that I plum fell down at one point. I was running into L position, looking over my shoulder, when I tripped on...nothing. Maybe the paint for the baseline was an especially thick coat? Anyway, my wipeout put me on my hands and knees--and scraped and bloodied my knees on the polyester of my ref pants. Blood soaked through enough that it was visible...even on the black knees.

No real pain or problems moving, but it did sort of knock me loopy-ish mentally. I told my partners between games that I shouldn't have problems moving or calling fouls, but that they should look for any bizarreness as a result of my mentally-off state.

(I've been mentally off a lot lately. Need to figure out how to bear down a bit.)

The Varsity game was close for three quarters before Red ran away with it in the fourth. Both coaches wanted travels; I felt like kids were keeping their pivot feet down. The Red coach wanted "over the back" (not a foul call, of course) on the White kid who was a head taller than anyone else on the floor. As is so often the case, the tall kid was doing nothing wrong; merely reaching up and grabbing the ball from over the head of a taller opponent. No contact=no foul=no merit to the complaint.

The main issue was that the loudest complains from Red came not from their head coach, but from an assistant. So I had a chat with the head coach about how I would talk to him as much as he wanted, but I couldn't hear from his assistants. It went on a hair too long, but since it was effective, I won't complain (didn't hear from the assistant again pretty much all night). Then, as I ran into position for the next play, I heard from the White coach (the guy I had to T a couple weeks back), and I learned he did, in fact, harbor a little grudge. "I got a T for saying 'over the back!'" he said...I think humorously.

But let's get real. Yes, I did T him for that...as the last in a series of about five hundred unsportsmanlike utterances that night. To blame his ejection on exactly one action was crazy.

I did respond a little--saying "I'd warned you, coach"--and immediately regretted it (although nothing went further). I didn't give a crap about the game 13 nights ago and may have made it look like I did by getting sucked into that conversation.

Anyhow, the game moved on pretty uneventfully from there. There were huge swaths of game (like most of the third quarter) where I didn't have a single foul call--simply the luck of the draw, I think. And there was one more situation with the White coach late--he wanted a call for something I honestly had no idea about (it was out of my area.) Somehow, it turned into a laugh for both of us (he said "call it on us; we're trying to foul...but I'd rather you call it on them!" Well, that's not very funny, but a lightened atmosphere sure did help out there.

A quick note about locker room talk: I feel like a lot of halftime discussion becomes too similar and not too helpful. It's usually coach-centric: "The [insert color] coach is on me. He wants [insert call]. But I can't give it to him because it's not happening: instead, [insert what is really happening]." Or, alternatively, "The [insert color] coach really didn't like the [insert call] that I had against his team. But it was really a good call. The player [insert brief description]."

I'm guilty of this too, but I think it's about 85% of halftime conversation (at least tonight). Coach complaints probably merit a lot lower percentage of our time. As R in the future (although I'm done as crew chief for a while), I'll try to steer conversation more to how we feel and less to how coaches feel.

THINGS I DID WELL: Coach management, crew integrity
THINGS TO WORK ON: Mental alertness, staying upright
NEXT: Eight days to another girls JV/Varsity nonconference matchup.

Game Log 12/17/2009: A hair off

2009-12-17T22:46:00.000-08:00

Not much to complain about in this JV/Varsity girls' doubleheader, but I don't think it was one of my best nights, either.

The three of us were set to start the JV game when the Varsity coach came and said nobody was there for the C-team game upstairs. We tried to contact the assignor--no luck--so one of my partners went to do that game solo while the other partner and I did a 2-person JV game. I now do enough 3-person that it's weird to do 2-person, which is actually kind of nice. The JV game was completely, 100% without incident. We called a fair number of fouls early--as I recall, the foul count was out of whack--but it went just fine. My relatively-green partner was in my area once or twice, but no big whoop. The game was sort of endless--lots of whistles--so the partner who soloed upstairs wound up watching and waiting for us. But there was little to pass on.

The Varsity game was not a big problem either. The coach for Blue liked to chirp quite a bit. I had a pretty clear shooting foul against his girl early--full forearm on full forearm--that he wanted to talk about. He surprised me with his civility. "I can't even argue that. You saw what you saw. But I think you got it wrong." I smiled and said "I disagree, coach." Handled that okay. He did get louder when the foul count was strong against him, but I didn't see anything to call against White. It eventually evened up just of its own volition, but he was still barking a little. Nothing T-worthy, but enough that we discussed later on how we need to make sure he didn't get in our heads. Was he in my head? I think he was, just a little, but it didn't impact any of my calls.

I had two I'd like back. One was an OMG double-dribble that was in front of my partner as C (I was T). I thought he had it. I should have saved his butt, but I didn't. The other was a scramble for a loose ball. Blue landed on top of White, so I called Blue for the push. About two seconds too late, my mind reconstructed the play: Blue didn't land on top of White she pushed her; Blue landed on top of White because White was on the floor, where she tripped up Blue. Blocking foul on White. Barking coach had some things to say about that. Regrettably, I couldn't compose a good response on the spot, and I didn't want to burn my one "Gee, I screwed that one up" for the night just then...so I gave him the ignore.

The game itself was fairly slappy and sloppy, but we got through it. Our observer said we had a good game. He also said that my mechanics are as good as anyone's he's seen. WOW. I can't believe I've gone from "look bad, too loosey-goosey" to "one of the best I've seen" over one summer. I think I'd like a second opinion, to be honest. While I can handle a compliment, I'm just not sure I could have come this far this fast with no real practice. But still, it's nice to hear.

THINGS I DID WELL: Positioning, rotation
THINGS TO WORK ON: Brain freezes (double dribble and set up wrong on FTs twice), coach management a little better, perhaps
NEXT UP: Smallish schools on Tuesday night. Girls JV/Varsity again.

Game Log 12/15/2009: Two Ts in a row...

2009-12-17T22:37:00.000-08:00

An interesting challenge the other night that I can't really reveal because it would show where I was officiating. I may talk about it later on in the year, however. But not here. Here, we'll just say we had two microscopic-school games, girls then boys. The girls microscopic-school team played a C-team for a local larger school and trounced them. The boys team played a microscopic school and pulled away in the second half.

The first game was smooth. What was most difficult about it was that this microscopic school used what was more or less an elementary school gym. The court was so short that it had the double-line for halfcourt that we had to explain to the visitors. Also, there was literally zero room on the baseline, which meant that we tried to eschew rotations as much as possible. Essentially, we agreed to holler when we rotated, which was rarely. But it all worked out.

Boys game was tougher, mostly thanks to the White coach. On my second call of the game--a rebound push where his kid landed on another kid--he piped in that his kid was 50 pounds lighter than the opponent. I didn't really have a response, since there is no wording in the rulebook which states that smaller kids cannot foul bigger kids. I did manage to say "Coach, this is not a polite question" (echoing what I say to coaches before every game). He said "I don't have a question." So I knew what he was made of early. He continued the play-by-play from hell enough that I warned him late in the second quarter. Both my partners said it was a good warning. He cooled off for a while, but his team started to fall apart in the third quarter (it was close at halftime). He chirped a little more then, and with the warning passed, the T was easy. In fact, my partners said they were surprised at how long I waited! "I'd have had him when he sarcastically addressed you as 'sir,'" one said. Nope--not enough. (How do you explain that in an ejection report? You don't. So I won't T for that.) We got together and said that they would have to have the second T. Second T was a possibility, really, but never quite arrived. Which I'm fine with.

I can't recall any real issues--calls I'd like back or calls I wish I'd made. I do think I was calling too much as lead, especially on rebounds. Need to have a more patient whistle there--that's a recurring theme for me this year in 3-person. But beyond that, it wasn't a bad night.

THINGS I DID WELL: Handled bizarre court well, took no crap
THINGS TO WORK ON: Patient whistle as L

NEXT UP: Well, it already happened. A Thursday girls JV/Varsity doubleheader. Just scroll up and you'll see.

Game log 12/8/2009: Challenging and weird

2009-12-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

Weird night. JV and Varsity girls games.

The JV teams weren't terribly skilled, and they gave us plenty of opportunities to call fouls. Not much we could pass on, either--these were NOT ticky-tacks. To give you an idea how many we called, the varsity game wound up starting 35 minutes late. But I can't think of a single one I'd like back. The main problem was, as the game went on (and on, and on...), we were sort of lulling ourselves to sleep. I took control in the locker room and warned everybody that we would need to step up and speed our brains up for the second game.

One weird call in the first half--not mine. Partner A had an elbowing technical foul against Blue. He didn't call it flagrant--didn't eject the player. Coach and player were upset, but fortunately player said "I had to do it; she had my jersey!" I think that made the sale of the call much easier. We went on from there.

The problem was that Partner A and the coach seemed to know each other from the past. So while I was getting literally no guff the whole game, Partner A was getting it. No issues in the first half, though.

In the second half, things started to get weird.

Partner A had at least 8 travels on Blue. Maybe a dozen of them (and only 1 or 2 on White). I do not remember me or partner B (a guy who's on his way to being a great official, but only in his second year and a tad deferent) calling a travel on Blue.

It looked bad. It looked a little like a vendetta. To be sure, partner A was callign stuff elsewhere. And I don't think he had a vendetta or any ill will. I just think he decided he needed to call every travel.

I probably should have gotten together at a time out and stressed crew integrity, maybe between the third and fourth quarter. But I didn't--it didn't feel enough to call everyone together about. In retrospect, I wish I would have, because Blue coach's behavior started to go downhill.

The part of the night that bugged me most was during Blue free throws when I was next to the bench. The player (elbower) was next to the coach, and she was pissed off about something Partner A was doing. Coach was encouraging unsportsmanlike behavior. "Don't worry about him," he said to her. "He's just like that. They call him Captain T." I managed to say to the player "Kid, keep your cool. I'm right here." But I chose not to disrupt the conversation. I guess if the coach wants to teach disrespect, I can't stop it, even if I would like to. But I know, as a teacher, that even if I don't like a fellow adult in the building, I would never actively undercut one like that. He continued to mutter--for my benefit--about the partner even as the kid walked away. I ignored it.

Anyhow, with about four minutes left, he had added the play-by-play from hell. Typical stuff--wanting three in the key when shots were going up, wanting everything (even though we were already calling a LOT of fouls on very-aggressive White). And, again, all of the coach's bile was directed towards Partner B...until I had a pretty freakin' obvious forearm-in-the-back-on-a-free-throw-rebound. Easiest call of the night.

He went bonkers. "You're going to call her for boxing out???"

I kept my cool and approached him. "Coach, two things. First of all, you don't box out with your forearm in the back."

"How'd the player get around her?"

"It doesn't matter how. Your girl's forearm gave her a big shove in the back. Secondly, I've had enough of you. I don't want to hear you anymore. No more. (give the palm signal)."

In retrospect, those sentences have too much "I" and "you" in them. I'll try to ease up a little...go with "coach, this is not sportsmanlike behavior, and it needs to stop. Enough." But still, I think I handled it okay.

I even gave him one slip-up...barking for three-in-the-key...before T-ing him up for a loud "OVER THE BACK!" Again, like most T's, this was for persistent infringement, not for the one outburst.

It's hard to say whether our lack of crew integrity contributed to this guy getting so worked up. I'd already had him this year, and he had acted like a total angel (although, to be fair, his team won by 30 that night...tonight, they won by about 10). I need to think through what to do in future situations like that. I think I had a good night, but I don't know that we were as good as a crew as we should have been, so in the end, I guess that reflects on me. That's that. It is what it is.

THINGS I DID WELL: Call selection, pregame, felt fairly consistent
THINGS TO WORK ON: More care with "you" to a coach, crew integrity
NEXT UP: Have a week off due to family coming to town. I have tiny-tiny schools oubleheader on that day--girls and boys varsity.

Game Log 12/7/2009: Big game, smooth game

2009-12-07T21:37:00.000-08:00

I wasn't the R tonight, but I did have the biggest game in the county. Granted, they're not really a big deal until the non-conference schedule ends, but I was still glad to get first-place in one conference last year against second-place in the other conference last year. Worked as a U2 with two regular playoff guys. And there were no problems.

JV went without issue, except for two--TWO!--triple-whistles. I haven't had one ever before, but tonight...holy crap. To be fair, all three were dead in the middle of the key. I was C on each of them, so I think I had a legitimate crack at them (although one of my partners claimed one of them was a drive from T to L, so maybe not). But seriously...two? Other than that, I only remember how calm and smooth the whole thing went.

Varsity was not a tremendous blowout, nor was it close (Blue led by 17 at half and won by 12). I did one fairly stupid thing, saying "Count the basket!" at a table when there was no basket. Brain-freeze...the table and my partners laughed. And they're claiming I'm taking too many calls as L. I probably am, especially the ones across the key. But when the shooter is right in front of me and in my area, why would I NOT take that call? I guess I don't get it.

Best moment of the night came from our observer. He came in at halftime (a little annoying, I must say...I'd rather he come after the ballgame and talk all he wants...at halftime, we need to talk as a crew). Nothing but compliments for the crew, with only minor suggestions (my calling stuff as L). As we headed back out to the floor, here's what he said:

OBSERVER: How long have you been doing this?
ME: This is my third year here, 11th overall.
OBSERVER: It shows.
ME: Thanks!
OBSERVER: Your mechanics are great.
ME: Really? They're not too loose?
OBSERVER: No. You look good out there.

I can't tell you how good that made me feel after SO MANY YEARS working on it. Success. (At least tonight.)

GOOD: Mechanics, stayed up with quick girls, crew communication
WORK ON: Brain freeze, poaching calls as L

Next up: Small-ish school at middling school girls' varsity tomorrow night.

Game Log 12/4/2009: I'm becoming the old guy

2009-12-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

Clearly, I'm trusted. All past games where I've been the R have featured a very experienced dude as one of the U's--I believe to support me. But tonight, I worked a girls varsity/JV doubleheader. Medium-sized to small schools who need a little work. And the games went reasonably well--there was a lot of slop and a LOT of fouls--each game pushed two hours in length. But I can't think of a ticky-tack call the whole night, and there were very few complaints.

The JV game was close and (in some ways) better-played than the varsity game. It came down to the final few minutes. I had some calls I couldn't overlook late, mostly on rebounds. Even late in a close game, anyone who puts a forearm on the back and pushes a player out in order to grab a rebound will get a whistle from me. I think I may have tooted the whistle on rebounds as L a little too much, but it went all right.

The weird play in the JV game was as follows. It starts with a mistake. I'm C heading upcourt with the dribbler behind me. I went and looked to her--probably shouldn't have...should have let T hold onto her. But let's set aside that mistake I'll be sure not to make again (I've been SLEEPY lately, and it's affecting my brain by making me watch the ball too often) and get to the question.

I see the player for Red come up under the ball and bring it back down again on a dribble, and I toot the whistle. Palming.

Partner runs up to me and says that he saw the defender tip the ball, so the palm was not a palm but rather starting a new dribble. Red coach agrees.

Do I overturn my call?

I decided not to. While doing that on an out-of-bounds play is natural, since play was stopped anyway, the ONLY thing I could change to at that point was a "Whoops! Inadvertent whistle! Red ball!" Didn't feel right.

When Red coach extended his arms (in the "What's up?" motion), I ran over and told him this: "This isn't a play we can correct. I made a mistake, but we're playing on."

His snide response: "Oh! So you're wrong, but it's okay."

Me: "Nope. I'm wrong, and I apologize. Now, we're moving on."

Ignoring that this whole thing started because I was ball-watching, did I do the right thing?

Second game was a blowout. Red torched them. We missed some rotations--had two C's and no L's at least twice--but I heard very little from coaches. I did hear quite a bit late from the bench of the losing team. I told the coach that the bench was too chirpy. Assistant went and talked to them. It didn't stop. I then told the coach that she was "very close to a bench technical." (With two minutes left in a 30-point game, I didn't want to call it, but these kids need to learn somehow.) Coach handled it about right. She turned to her girls and shouted "Shut up!" Cool.

Oh--I also had an administrative technical for failure to put a number in the book. And a whole host of corrections of the fashion-police variety in the pregame. They must have thought I was a total control freak, but whatever. It also had a few moments where we looked bad because we tried to give unmerited one-and-ones (once because I had a brain fart and didn't have the right team in the bonus in my head, once because of a scoreboard error) Both times the table straightened it out, thankfully, but it can't have made us look too good.

It wasn't perfect, but it would have been hard to make this game good, especially late, as the girls got tired. I can live with the way it all went.

And after the game, I learned that it was one of my partners' first varsity game. I wish I'd known before. But it made me even happier with the game. We didn't crash and burn (far from it), and with all its flaws, I did manage to lead a relatively green crew through a somewhat challenging ballgame. I'll take that.

GOOD: Leadership, handled the weird with confidence
WORK ON: My concentration waned a little. Refocus needed on my area and on off-ball.
NEXT UP: A fairly strong girls' varsity/JV doubleheader on Monday. Big schools. I'm not the R this time...this time I'M the newbie. But I don't feel that way anymore. This leadership has boosted my confidence.

Game Log 12/1/2009: Officially underway.

2009-12-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

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.

Game Log 11/30/2009: Jamboree

2009-11-30T22:35:00.001-08:00

Worked two ten-minute quarters tonight. No big whoop. Felt in control all night, and only had one call I'd like back (a shove on a rebound--it was there, but I should have held the whistle just a tad because I called it on the losing/defense team just as a three-pointer zipped through the net). Also, a double whistle I probably shouldn't have tooted. I was L and called a rebounding foul on Blue the opposite side of the key, and went up at the same time as my C. C said "Do you have a foul on White?" and I lied and said yes because he had a FAR better look at the play. Kudos to me for delaying after the whistle--my season-long goal to slow down is already paying dividends!--but still, I'd have been better off never blowing the whistle on that one at all.

Had a great pregame...but only with one partner, since the other was in the stands chatting with other officials. Bummer. But it made a big difference even with just the one partner. And further, the assignor was watching, and said we did well--that as a crew, he'd put us on any game. Nice!

One minor blunder. With no real rules changes in NFHS, I'm afraid I went into cruise control and sort of forgot a new high school mechanic: T is now mirroring L's chop-clock signal on baseline inbounds in the frontcourt. Totally forgot it, and assignor reminded us between Jamboree mini-games. No sweat. Then, with 6 seconds left, I was T in such a situation. "That BloggingRef is really intelligent," he said to those around him. "You only have to tell him something once, and then he's got it. Watch him chop the clock in on this." Alas, I made a liar out of him. I was too busy communicating last-shot stuff and totally forgot the new chop-clock mechanic. We got a laugh out of it, but I need to remember henceforward.

All in all, I still feel like I'm off to a good start. I look forward to the first real game tomorrow night.

GOOD: Felt comfortable, ran good pregame, communicated well with partners
WORK ON: More patient whistle as L, foot speed (these kids were quick, and I was beat a time or two more often than I would like)
NEXT UP: Small-school girls JV/Varsity doubleheader tomorrow. Time for the real games!

Am I reading too much into this?

2009-11-27T20:57:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to figure out where I stand in this association, and I think I may like the answers.

Here are the clues that lead me to believe that I am gaining my assignor's trust and may be heading towards girls' playoff assignments (if not this year, then next).

--The assignor gave me the county all-star game at the end of the year--the one that all the officials in the association go watch as their final meeting. He could have picked anyone, but I was one of the three he selected. On the one hand, it's not that big a deal--just one assignment--but on the other, it was a public attaboy.

--When I asked the assignor what I could be working on this year, he didn't have much to suggest. "I think you had a good season," he said. "Do I look athletic out there?" I replied. "It's not so bad," he replied. "Maybe work on running style a little more? But it's not a big deal." He then added that he'd be giving me several games as R this year to see how I handle leadership. That's not too shabby.

--My December slate of games is interesting. They're all girls' games, so I think the assignor has concluded that this is where I'm best used. As he indicated, he's using me at referee (of the six games currently on my slate, I'm tossing for 4 of them). All are JV/Varsity, so there's no more slogging through C-team games (in good part because budget cuts have slashed the C teams from many local school districts, although not all).

What I find especially interesting is that he's using me at very small schools almost exclusively in December. What does this mean? Does he not trust me with bigger girls' games? Is he testing my leadership mettle out with the tiny schools? Or is he saving the big ones for later in the year?

I'm pretty clearly overthinking this. But I'm still optimistic and excited about this season more than any I can remember.

Game Log 11/27/09: Nine quarters

2009-11-27T20:49:00.000-08:00

All right, so they were running clock scrimmage-quarters. And so we had four refs, and one of us was resting in each of the quarters; so I only worked 7 quarters, or 56 minutes of running clock. Still, it sounds pretty rugged of me to have done this.

Girls' scrimmage today. No real issues I noticed. The quality of play was hit-and-miss (the quarters with the varsity were far better than the quarters with the C-team bench), but I didn't have any real issues or any calls I'd like back.

What's most interesting is how I feel myself taking the reins of leadership a little more. I was one of two officials there who had a good deal of experience, and rather than defer to the guy who has been at it far longer, I stepped up and positioned myself in the role of co-leader. The new guys were good and listened to what we had to say. It was quite nice.

The one thing I'm consciously working on, slowing down, actually felt like it went well today. Only once did I say something non-NFHS-approved after tooting my whistle, and on the whole, I know I slowed down. Was my posture OK? I don't know, but I do know I slowed down and that this is most of the battle.

I called one foul across the key as L that I probably should have let T or C handle, but so did my three partners at other times. I felt I was consistent with travel calls. I simply felt good. Well, except for my left ankle, which seemed surprised to be back in action, but that soreness has already gone.

I'm glad I'm taking these games; the aforementioned junior high game, this varsity scrimmage, and Monday's jamboree. It's making me feel completely at ease for the year.

THINGS I DID WELL: Slowed down, showed leadership, call selection
THINGS TO WORK ON: Poached on across key as L, forgot to stay back once on press as C (went to sleep sometime in the sixth quarter...)
NEXT UP: Jamboree Monday--lots of good girls' teams will be there, so it'll be a good test for the couple of quarters they'll put me out there.

This year is different.

2009-11-25T06:45:00.000-08:00

There are some scrimmages this morning, and our main assignor is there, saying that he'd like to see everybody. I wasn't sure I was available (we will be leaving town for Thanksgiving around noon), but I also know that it'd be good to be seen. I chatted with the wife, got clearance to leave this morning, then called the assignor to see if I was needed. He replied that he was covered, that if I could make it, go ahead, but it wasn't a big deal if I missed it.

I planned to go.

But wife woke up with the boy too often overnight, and as the alarm went off this morning, it was clear that wife's sleep before she bakes pies all day > my scrimmage.

So I'm home. I may catch the girls game a little later on this morning, but probably not.

It would have been nice to work a boys' varsity scrimmage, since I need practice at that level. And face time with the assignor matters too. But wife's sleep trumps all.

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

2009-11-19T19:44:00.001-08:00

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.

I'm baaaa-aaaack!

2009-11-08T13:04:00.000-08:00

09/10 sorta kinda begins today. I've got my first meeting tonight, and I'll likely get a scrimmage or two in over the next week or two, then start up with some junior high or little-kid ball to get myself ready for the real-live season after Thanksgiving.

Things might be a little bit different this year. As my silence over the summer indicates, things are a bit busy around here with the little dude. That has combined with a pretty huge increase in my responsibilities at work...all in all, there aren't enough hours to do everything. I seriously considered hanging 'em up, or at least taking a year off. My wife interceded. "You like doing this too much to give it up," she said. "But I'd never get to see you or the boy! On nights where the game is on the other side of town, I'd go straight from work to get a sandwich to get to the game! I'd leave before the boy woke up, and come home after he went to bed!" My wife responded as follows: "It'll tell you what," she said. "On those nights, we'll meet you at Subway for dinner."

I married up.

Anyhow, I just took my rules test. Got a 93. I cheated a -little- bit, but actually not too much. I looked for some of the stupid stuff (dimension of court, number of panels on the ball, etc.). But I studied the stupid rules (fashion) and the stuff that seldom comes up (fights, bookkeeping technicals, that stuff).

So, while I may reduce the number of games I do this year, I'll be back at it, at least a little bit. I'll start this year in decent shape, too. While my plan to run a bunch and call fouls didn't come to fruition, I did manage to walk a bunch with an infant strapped to my belly and eat pretty well. So I've lost 10 pounds--almost unheard of for an off-season.

I just need to recall my main problem from last year (geez, I'm just noticing I didn't do a year-in-review post. It's like I had a new infant or something.) It's that I go too quickly, and therefore look loosey-gooseey and non-athletic. This year, I won't call a foul without thinking "How do I look physically right now?" That will enable me to slow down and to look better.

But I suspect this year will be about figuring out if I can manage this with my newly-harried life getting in the way. We shall see.

Supreme Court Judges as umpires...part two

2009-07-23T09:48:00.001-07:00

During the John Roberts confirmation hearing, when he compared the job of a Supreme Court Justice to that of a baseball umpire, I took some time to wade through the comparison.

Now the judge/umpire comparisons are on the loose again due to Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings.

But this time, As They See 'Em author Bruce Weber writes an interesting examination of the comparison in the New York Times.

(By the way, have you read his book yet?)

I still exist.

2009-07-14T23:55:00.000-07:00

I've noticed about a half dozen of you who are coming here (mostly from an officiating.com forum mention of my blog). Welcome!

But there hasn't been any real ref news this summer. And I'm not reffing. Good news is I've lost 10 pounds and am going on daily walks with the baby. Bad news is I'm not running.

We'll see if I pay the piper come November.

I'll be here if there's ref-related news. Feel free to post in comments if I'm missing something.

Game Log 6/13/2009: Damn it. I'm buying another T-shirt.

2009-06-13T12:55:00.001-07:00

The first game today was very high quality. Summer ball...so only minor coach whining. I was slowing down at the spot--at least when I remembered, which was often--and the calls were all fine.

Then, I made a mistake that I swore this season that I wouldn't make again--and it was a big, impactful call with less than a minute left.

Shit. Damn, hell, and shit.

Blue is down by one. They're playing good defense. I hear people shouting "Foul!" There's minimal contact. I call a foul.

They weren't fouling.

Not much to say here, except it was probably the worst single call I've made in years. It was out of my area, it was wrong strategically, it was wrong factually, and I'm supposed to have learned that.

Massref very kindly told me that he's "been there, done that, bought the T-shirt" last time I made this error. But, for whatever reason, I guess I needed a second screw-up to get it in my head.

Damn. Damn, hell, shit, and damn.

I did the only thing I could do. I told the coach I'd blown the call. He was, needless to say, unhappy (unlike the incredibly classy guy in January). His team wasn't removed from the game...had the ball with a 2-point deficit (the kid only made one of two free throws) with 45 seconds left, then the ball with a 3-point deficit and 20 seconds to play.

But the coach was fixated on the call, actually shouting "Where's the makeup call? Where's the makeup call?"

Coach, I'll get them wrong on accident occasionally--and on very rare occasion s(today, alas, being one), egregiously. But I will never, ever get one wrong on purpose.

Anyway, the second game was a little bit of a blur. It was a blowout, and not much went wrong. I won't say my focus was 100%, but it was good enough.

It'd be nice if I could get right back out there to get this taste out of my mouth, but I have nothing on the schedule. I'll just re-commit to handing this situation better, and I'll be secretly thankful that I got to learn in a summer game instead of a big one later on.

THINGS I DID WELL: Bounced back from screwup, managed game after screwing it up, handled clock situations, slowed down at spot
THINGS TO WORK ON: Does three T-shirts mean that I need a hotel in the "been there, done that" location?

NEXT UP: As much as I hate summer ball, I wish I had a game right around the corner to wipe this one away. But, alas, I likely won't work again until November, unless there's some other tournament rolling into town..

Game Log 6/12/2009: Two summer blowouts

2009-06-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

Ragged girls' varsity ball last night--twenty point games each. I focused primarily on slowing down at the spot, and my partner said I succeeded at that...but was too quick at the table. No sweat on that.

It was a little hard going to a two-person game, but I adjusted. It was harder for my partner.

Two notable occurrences:

1. In my first game, I was new lead when there was a big collision well behind me, at about halfcourt (as I was approaching the baseline). It was C's call all the way...but alas, there was no C. The coach of one of the teams who felt he was wronged ran out onto the floor. Not a little...to the center circle. My partner did not blow his whistle. (The ball eventually wound up out of bounds...long after the coach was on the floor.)

No T, no whistle to talk, no NOTHING. I was amazed, but could do next to nothing about it. I don't care that it was a coach getting blown out, or that the partner felt he missed the call, or that it was a summer tournament. I can't believe he had nothing.

2. In the second game, I had the team from the school where I teach. Normally, I dodge them, but it was summer ball and I couldn't find anyone to trade with. That, and the team was outgunned (as even the coach admitted). So I simply did the game.

There was one very mouthy parent from my HS. Maybe I don't like people giving my school a bad name, but she was bad. Lacking a gym administrator, I went to the coach and had the following exchange:

"Coach, that parent is really bugging me."
"That's not my job."
"It's not my job, Coach."

A couple of trips down the floor later, I heard the coach say something like "We have to work together..." and the parent didn't speak again. So he shut her up. It was for the wrong reason...not "hey, you're making yourself, your team, and your school look bad," but it was for "hey, make my work day easier." Not that I'd ever have held anything against the coach.

On a subsequent free throw, the coach/co-worker cracked me up by whispering in my ear: "I have to listen to her ass all year!"

The games: uneventful. Ragged, a lot of fouls, but uneventful.

GOOD: I slowed down at the spot, managed blowouts
WORK ON: Slower at table.

NEXT: Has already happened. I had two games today, but didn't get a shot to blog about last night's until now. Bedtime for the boy took precedence.

An idiot in the stands

2009-05-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

I was at a high school sporting event recently as a fan. I always forget how icky fans can be, since I'm not focused on them when I work. But this guy at a fairly rich HS took the cake.

The official made a call that he didn't like, and in response, he said something like this:

"I've never liked high school officials in general. They're terrible. You know something I've learned? A lot of them are bus drivers. Bus drivers! I mean it. Like, the one time in high school, I took the [local public transit organization] bus downtown, and the guy driving it was one of the football officials I'd had! I just couldn't believe it. A bus driver!"

I almost want to let this go without comment--the guy looks bad enough as it is--but I can't.

1. He's actually attacking a sports official for making an honest living driving a city bus.
2. He seems to think that a doctor, lawyer, or astrophysicist would make a better official than a butcher or bus driver. I wonder why he thinks this is true.
3. One of the things I like most about HS officiating is it is one of the very few parts of our society where people come together from different social strata and work as a team with a common goal. Some nights I work with a hot-shot lawyer or big-time businessman. Some nights I work with a guy from the toughest part of town who's trying to piece together a living with officiating as one of the pieces to his economic puzzle. And we are forced to work together under stressful circumstances.

Where else does this happen in our society? Not jury duty (the rich tend to get off that). Not in schools, which are racially and economically segregated worse than at any time since Brown vs. Board of Ed. Not in youth league sports, which are also segregated by community.

I honestly can't come up with another place, in my life anyway, where we work together other than as officials.

I think I can rest easy knowing that guy in the stands will reveal his butthead nature to the wrong guy someday, and as a result be grossly overcharged for electrical or mechanical work. And he'll deserve it.

Game Log 4/11/09: Competence

2009-04-12T20:33:00.001-07:00

Two summer league games, two blowouts: the first, I believe, was varsity boys; the second more likely sophomores.

I have very few memories of the first game. There was barking from the bench over "a travel right in front of you, and you didn't even call it." The kid sort of shifted his weight as though he shuffled his feet, but the feet stayed down. I went to the barking coach, since he was so near, and said "Do you have a question?" He gave an inadequate and unmemorable response. I said "I'll respond to you if you have questions, but you can't be barking at me."

Turns out that was the ASSISTANT coach. Oops. If I'd have had that straight in my head, I'd have gone to the head coach and had him handle it. But the game was a relative blowout--20 points or so--and mostly cruising. Some minor conditioning problems late, especially in one of those ohmygod four-or-five straight turnover situations, but not bad for 2-person all told.

The second game had several firsts. It was a horrendous blowout from the word go.

First 100-point game. The winners nearly doubled up the losers.
First dunk.
First situation where I could have called basket interference. On a layup, a defender whacked the net and (I think) the ball through the net. The ball went through anyway, so that fact that I froze (as is to be expected, I suppose, for my first call of its sort) had no impact. But I'll be readier for the next one.

Main thing is how damn good I felt about this one. I had a partner who I was totally in sync with. While we didn't switch on all fouls, we did report to the table for all fouls, which gave me an opportunity to think about posture and slowing down. While I wasn't perfect, I was aware, and I think I was improving. That's the first step.

Also, during that second game, there was a moment where everything could have gone into the crapper and didn't. At halftime, when it was clear we had a massive blowout and a frustrated losing team, I said to my partner that we needed to be vigilant about frustration fouls by the losing team.

As we approached 9 minutes left, there was a light push on a breakaway. Not intentional, but time to start looking.

At 8 minutes left, there was a worse one. My partner didn't have the intentional, and I don't think I would have either...just not quite enough. But things were starting to turn. I walked to give the free throws and told everybody to settle down. We wanted it cleaner, we said.

We then called it very tight for about two minutes...got several bits of contact we might otherwise have overlooked. Didn't frustrate anybody, since they were equally on both teams, but got it better.

Losing coach told partner in there that players were complaining about the winning team talking smack. He said we'd listen for it. We didn't hear any.

When winning team knocked an opponent over on a routine foul on the shot, he helped him up. I thanked him for his sportsmanship.

No problems from there. I'm quite proud of our work on this one. It absolutely could have become ugly without us. It didn't.

Losing team gave up its 96th, then 98th point with about a minute left. Winning team, who I don't feel was doing anything to run up the score (although they did run a one-on-one press throughout, but not anything egregious), then wanted to get to a century. Losing coach saw what was happening and kept saying "Hold the ball! Slow it down! Hold up!" He was satisfied to let the clock run out and avoid the embarrassment of giving up 100. But kids were not even remotely listening to him. They were just cranking up shots. Winning team would rebound, and then, with about ten seconds left, with 98, ran the ball downcourt, was pushed, went up and made the shot...but I had vociferously waved it off. "No shot! On the floor!" It was the right call. but it prevented the winning team from getting 98 on that shot. (They did get it when the kid drained both double-bonus free throws.)

Anyway, it felt great. If all summer partners and games were like this one, I'd do more of them. As is, I'll maybe give one weekend a month, mostly to work on slowing down and looking athletic.

THINGS I DID WELL: Game awareness, crew consistency, mostly conditioning, posture and slowing down at the table.
THINGS TO WORK ON: Coach awareness (don't talk to assistant), some conditioning, posture adn slowing down at spot.
NEXT UP: Nothing on the slate, but I'll take any tournaments that come along. Meanwhile, I'll run and walk along a nearby semi-desolate route I've found, looking to see whether anyone's watching and then calling fouls and violations on flowers.

Read this book

2009-04-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

-As They See 'Em- by Bruce Weber.

Weber, a New York Times reporter writes a definitive book about professional umpiring. He gets to know a couple of youngsters in the Northwest League and their daily grind, and also gets to know more than a few people at the major league level. He attends the Jim Evans Umpiring Academy although he hasn't yet umpired a game, and then does some games at home in New York (HS, Babe Ruth, and some adult leagues). He really gets at some of the deepest core beliefs of umpires and of officials in general, and looks at what might be some important aspects of their personalities. He also talks to some of the principals for the best and worst calls in recent memory and goes over the recent labor actions by both major league and minor league umps.

If you're interested enough in officiating to be reading this blog, you simply must get a hold of this book. It's insightful, entertaining, and fun. I'm even going to force my wife to read it so she understands some of my, um, personality quirks a little bit better.

Game Log 4/5/09: Three in a row with a running clock

2009-04-05T14:32:00.000-07:00

I hate doing summer ball. Too often, it's a situation like today's. We walked in and were told "No one-and-one, just go to two shots at 10 fouls. Nobody's fouling out, and we're not even keeping a book...just the scoreboard."

What a running clock means is that my main goal--to slow the hell down when making calls--runs counter to the spirit of the game I'm in. If I paused, took a breath, got into an athletic position, and then deliberately gave the call, that would mean valuable time ticking off the clock. So it occurred to me quickly that my goal to appear more athletic couldn't be the primary thing I worked on this game.

Instead, I worked on conditioning. Three games is more than I usually do...boys, girls, then boys...so by the second half of that third game, I was dragging pretty hard. But I was only beaten down the floor once (on a steal...would have beaten me no matter what kind of shape I was in). And while fatigue started in impact me just a hair late, I only want two calls back for the entire three games.

So, in playground-quality games (lots of running, a fair number of turnoversJ), I stayed upright and on the case. I'll take that.

THINGS I DID WELL: Stayed up with the action, call selction
THINGS TO WORK ON: Conditioning, can still appear athletic even in a get-the-ball-back-in game
NEXT UP: Another tournament...HS boys on Saturday.

Game Log 3/22/09: All-star game

2009-04-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

I do think it's a good sign that I was selected for this game 1 1/2 weeks ago (yeah, I'm late...but nowadays, wife and boy always have legitimate things to do that beat refblogging). Seriously--the dude could have chosen anybody for these games, and he picked me. I honestly think he wanted to see what I could do with the very best (female) athletes from around here.

It went just fine. The key is that it's always a little easier to ref better players. Plus, in an All-Star game, it's always better to let them play a little anyway, and these girls were fine with that. Although I did whistle one walk...stutter-step I didn't think I could ignore.

The coaches were coaches from local small colleges. One did not like a rebound call I had. I had a good angle as T (maybe C) that saw his girl jump into the other girl...she grabbed the ball cleanly in the air, but landed on an opponent enough that I couldn't ignore it. The conversation with the coach went too long. I explained what I had. He said "Well, I had a good angle on it, and she didn't get her." I may have come across as too defensive, saying "I had a great angle, coach." Probably could have let it go, but didn't. Anyhow, there weren't other big problems.

The continuing problem is loosey-goosey mechanics. One of the more experienced guys (although I'm finding that I am rapidly becoming one of the more experienced guys) said that "You call a great game, and you look bad doing it." He then hit me with one of my LEAST favorite phrases: "You just have to want it." I can't stand it when people pass off difficulty learning as a character flaw. I don't do that as a teacher. Anyway, his recommendation was that I call fouls in front of a mirror all summer long. I'll do that. I'll even go for runs and call fouls on everyone in town--fire hydrants, joggers, dogs. But the critical key will be to slow WAY down after tooting my whistle and to "get in an athletic position," as one guy said. That's a great idea. And when I do that in front of a mirror, I don't look half bad.

I think this is a hugely critical next step for me, but anything physical has always been a challenge for me. But this is the summer it happens. It'll start with some weekend tournament games these next couple of weekends. I normally don't work much over the summer, but we could use the money, and I could use the practice looking athletic.

(More to come in my Year In Review post.)

THINGS I DID WELL: Call selection, handled quality athletes
THINGS TO WORK ON: Shorten coach communication, tighten up mechanics
NEXT UP: A HS tourney, 1 girls game and 2 boys, this Sunday. 2-person.

Well, I'll be darned.

2009-03-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

Just as I'm finally recovering from my baby-related work stoppage to put together my year-end self-assessment, I get tabbed to do an all-star girls' game on Sunday. The best kids in the county going against each other in a post-State showcase. It mostly looks like it's fun--a 3-point contest at halftime, plus a boys' dunk contest--and in past years, a quick Google search tells me, scores have been very high. But still, my assignor picked me to do the game. I have to take that as a very good sign.

Officials get in free. So I can count on many people telling me how they would have done better. But I suspect my assignor wants to see me run with the creme-de-la-creme under non-pressure conditions before seeing if he can put me on big games next year (including, perhaps, the playoff list?). So I will dust off the shoes and de-gunk the whistle for one more time up the floor.

By popular demand...

2009-03-10T06:20:00.001-07:00

...well, because Massref asked, anyway...

meet the boy. Born two weeks ago. Healthy as all get-out and growing like a weed. Mom, son, and dad are all doing fine--as well as we can while sleeping in 2-3 hour chunks.

Baby was, like all babies, legally blind at birth. He now has really good eyes. Of course, this rules out his ever becoming an official.

Season possibly over...

2009-02-11T20:35:00.000-08:00

Well, at least it's not athletically-related, like last year...

but an annoying, non-basketball-related minor ailment and its consequent annoying, non-basketball-related minor surgery has compelled me to cancel my JV/Varsity games scheduled for tomorrow and my junior high games slated for Friday. I should be better by the time the weekend finishes, but it looks like they aren't using me on my available days next week (likely due to lack of games), and after that...well, my wife is due to give birth on 2/24.

So the season may be over.

I'm very, very happy with this season, unlike last year. Once I know for sure that I'm done for the year, I'll put up my customary year-in-review.

Game Log 2/5/09: Not quite there.

2009-02-05T22:26:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why I never quite got my brain around tonight's games. Some of it was the weirdness of the first game: no fouls in the first six minutes, dull throwing-the-ball-around offenses, and not much going on...until suddenly they started beating the snot out of each other. Some of it was the way that the Varsity game went...two chirpy coaches. Some of it was that, when I said "Guys, I've about had enough out of the Red coach," they said "Nah, she's just coaching hard," and I decided to honor crew integrity by letting her continue to shout and gesticulate. Some of it is that I then had to warn White's coach, who hopped up and down when he felt his girl was jumped on in a loose-ball-on-the-floor situation (I obviously didn't have that or I would have called it...but I may have been too close to the play).

I don't know. I'm not blaming my partners--it's my job to work with them--but I didn't feel like my personality meshed with one of them, who liked extended conversations with coaches and joking with a lot of people (fans, coaches, players). It's not that he didn't take the game seriously--he did--but it didn't feel -businesslike- to me, especially when we went to the coaches for our pre-game quick chats. I guess I didn't feel 100% comfortable telling him I wanted things my way, but dammit, I was the R...I needed to be a little more take-charge. But he sort of dominated.

I don't think I want any calls back (save the aforementioned loose-ball jump if I missed it). But I wasn't mentally there tonight for this big 3rd-place vs. 2nd-place game. I won't dwell on it...I'll just look forward to the next one, which will go better.

THINGS I DID WELL: Call selection, off-ball calls
THINGS TO WORK ON: Comfort, leadership
NEXT UP: I have a week away now due to work commitments. Thursday night I have 2nd place against 1st place! But it's not as big a game as this one, actually, since 1st place is light-years ahead of 2nd and will probably have clinched by then, and will likely cruise to its usual 30-point victory. Tonight's game was better.

Game Log 2/2/09: Good partners, smooth sailing

2009-02-02T21:14:00.000-08:00

The #2 team in the state faced a 1-15 squad tonight. First time they'd faced each other, it was a final score of high double-digits against single-digit. Tonight, the #2 team in the state used this as an opportunity to play their JV. (1-15 had no JV, so we did a freshman/varsity doubleheader. The varsity game was the only way JV would get any work in tonight.) Net result: no real issues.

Freshman game was fairly easy. There was one interesting call where I was T running behind the press when players tried to pin the dribbler against the sideline after a long pass. There was a bit of traffic between me and her, and I saw her step out of bounds. Coach wanted a push. I told her I'd watch for it, but I saw pretty good straight-up defense.

The losing team only had 7 players. When one fouled out with about 5 minutes to go, I remembered that another had four fouls. I ran to my partners. "23 White has four fouls," I told both.

Sure enough, about 30 seconds later, 23 White absolutely creamed a girl on the shot. Couldn't ignore it. Dammit, 23, we tried to cut you some slack, but you wouldn't let us! But I still give myself credit for game awareness and communication.

Other than that--no issues at all.

The Varsity game meant dealing with the coach of the #2 team, who is known to go after people a little bit. I received my baptism on a shooting foul. I'm L, and right in front of me was a colossal hack...whole hand and forearm on whole hand and forearm. The sound, the sight...pretty major-league foul against #2 team. The ball made its way up to the rim, bounced there three times, and fell in. Pretty clear and-one.

I was quite surprised that the coach selected that call to get after me on. We could have called that one from the top row blindfolded. His complaint:

"That must have been quite a hack if the ball was able to get up there and bounce on the rim a bunch of times."

All I could say back was "Coach, it was all arm." I think I even smiled a bit. It was clear I was being tested, but really, on such an obvious call? Probably just a pre-test. I'll get a bigger one when I see him next week, I imagine.

If I'd had time to give a full essay response, I'd have cited this excellent article in which a physics professor says that, if the ball goes up to the rim, there's a greater chance that the player was fouled, not less. The laws of physics say so! But I didn't. Thankfully for both of us.

What I liked most about this game is how we stuck with it to the end. I even had an off-ball call with 30 seconds left when 1-15's center put a forearm to the back and knocked a player to the floor. Can't do that...don't care. I'll admit I took a pass when the losing team fouled the winning team on a 30-foot three-point heave at the buzzer. No need to stick around to shoot three. Coach wanted them, but by the time he registered his protest, I was halfway to the locker room.

One of the top officials in our association--one of my favorites--was working with me and a frequent 2-person partner of mine tonight. He was working heavily with my partner all night (partner was doing far too much ball-watching). He had very little to recommend for me tonight. At the end, all he said was that my mechanics need to tighten up...I'm too loosey-goosey. Yup...I know that. I just have to figure out how to tighten it up. Perhaps I'll join the Marines.

THINGS I DID WELL: Stayed focused in blowout, coach management, called it to the end
THINGS TO WORK ON: Loosey-goosey mechanics, not rotating correclty on free throws sometimes (I want to run down from away-from-table-side to administer when L calls the foul).
NEXT UP: Next up is a fairly decent test, actually. It won't make the front page of the sports section, but it's a big matchup against .500 girls' teams. There's significant playoff positioning at stake. And I'm the R. Again...they've quickly started trusting me more and more...I've got to make it a good one.

A product testimonial

2009-02-01T13:04:00.000-08:00

I'm not being paid to say this. But my last two games, I've worn one of these. And it's worth every cent--and more--not to have to hitch my damn pants up 623 times a game. So rarely does something do exactly what it's advertised to do. So, yay stretchy interior belt.

Game Log 1/29/2009: Movin' on up...

2009-01-29T21:15:00.000-08:00

Top big school girls' against middle of road school girls. Top school was up by 10 out of the gate, middle school hung around between 5 and 8 in the second quarter, and top school blew it open in the third. Oh, and the JV game was barely memorable.

Partners and I worked well together and also didn't work well together. In the first half of the JV game, I really felt like we were on a string, rotating very nicely together. It got a little ragged as the players did, but hey, it was a fine 3-person rotation we had going.

However, in the Varsity game, there were times when I didn't feel like I was on the same page as what my partners were calling.

The first half, they called a few more than I do. Was I taking passes? Nothing too serious, I thought. Our assignor had watched the second quarter and gave us a quick halftime critique, saying that he felt like we weren't protecting the shooter too well. He did, however, say that I had a good and-one at the end of the half. But I can recall one or two light-contact shooting moments that I deemed not enough to call.

In the second half, my partners called quite a bit more than I did. Some of this was simply the luck of the draw...there was a long stretch where I was the C and all the action on both ends of the floor was very far away from me (may have even stretched to 4 or 5 minutes of play). I'm not going to reach to call anything in T or L's area, especially on a shot, unless I have a really, really good look (and I recall one of those, actually, that I took). But they kept calling loads of stuff. I only had a few.

I don't want to get overly worked up about this, but I'm noticing I've been calling a little less than partners have lately. Maybe my instinct to notcall stuff until I see a result isn't what's wanted in this association. And I want crew integrity. So I'll have to keep an eye on that.

Not a bad night, though. One of my partners put it well in the locker room after the game: "You know, I can't think of a single call I want back tonight. Not one "oh, man, why'd I blow that whistle?" And neither can I. I probably could have whistled one or two that I didn't, but it was a perfectly adequate evening.

Assignor said I'm rotating too late and too quickly (running rather than the preferred brisk walk). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that these two criticisms are related...cause and effect (I go late, so I have to run). I'll solve the first (not waiting so long) and the second will follow.

THINGS I DID WELL: "Looked good after blowing the whistle," I'm told. Picked up rotations well as T and C.
THINGS TO WORK ON: Consider passing on fewer calls, especially on shooters; rotate earlier as Lead.
NEXT UP: Massive blowout JV/Varsity game on Monday night. (First time the teams met, one team scored over 11 times what the other team scored.)

A tale of two emails

2009-01-28T21:23:00.000-08:00

In ten years of officiating, I had only once heard about a parent responding to my work. I'm certain that assignors filter almost all of the bitching out and shield it from officials, but one day in about 2000, after a smooth-as-silk varsity game between tiny schools...awesome flow, lots of running up and down the floor, quality play, and minimal contact...my assignor called me to say that there was parent complaints of terrible pushing, and rough play.

Apparently I'd reffed a game at the Academy of Bizarre Hallucinations.

I told him nothing of the sort happened. He said "Thanks, buddy! That's all I need to know!"

Now I've had two game-related emails get to me in a week--about consecutive games.

The first email was a parental complaint that might have been about these very run-of-the-mill games, or maybe the C-team game that night that I didn't do, or maybe about a game that took place somewhere in the upset mom's brain. Mom claimed that there a player slapped her daughter's face during a jump ball, that one official closed with a jump ball call while "the other" (funny phrasing for a 3-person game) closed with a T, that we ignored the T and continued play, that her daughter was so upset that she removed herself from the game and asked the coach not to be reinserted.

I can certainly understand why this mother is upset, except for the fact that the entire story is fictional.

Seriously, loyal readers...would something like that (a T and a jump ball double-whistle! and conflict about what to call!) have not merited a mention? Would neither coach have uttered a peep about it?

I reviewed my game log, wrote a probably-too-long email back to my assignor, CC-ing my partners, and let it go. Both of my partners followed up thanking me for the email and saying they agreed with my assessment. Assignor loved my email so much that he sent it back to the AD who sent him the mom's letter in the first place. Ah, the advantages of being a writer-ref!

So that's over.

Then, today, another one, about my most recent boys' game.

It was very brief and from the losing coach to the assignor, who forwarded it to my partner and me:

I just wanted to let you know what a great job our officials did Monday night. It was by far the best we have been officiated all year. I don’t remember their names but they did a great job.

Wow! And hmmm...

It's clear that this coach didn't remember me from the previous Monday, when he was as annoyed as any coach all year long. It would have been funny if he'd said "They were WAY better than that last clown we had!" I guess you're only as good as your last call.

So I can't take either comment too seriously, really...you can't say that the coaches/parents who like you are correct and the ones who hate you are delusional. That's some weird kind of critique cherry-picking. But still...what a weird week. Emails about consecutive games!

Game Log 1/26/2009: This was a great, great night.

2009-01-26T23:00:00.000-08:00

I returned to the scene of last week's somewhat difficult ballgame for another boys/girls varsity doubleheader. A very unskilled girls' team was playing the number one microscopically-small school in the whole state. (When they played each other the first time, they lost by nearly 80 points.) The boys' team had lost by 40 points as well.

I was a little bit nervous...I don't like returning to a coach who isn't happy so soon after he's unhappy. I think I'm learning most coaches have bad memories, however. I got there my usual hour early to discover that the junior high games in the same gym were running very, very long and that we'd likely start about a half hour late. Our changing room is the coach's office, and he wound up coming in and bullshiting with us (mostly my partner) for about a half hour. I'm not a huge fan of kibbitzing with coaches, but there was nothing we could do (leaving would have been highly rude, there was nowhere to go, and we can hardly throw a guy out of his own office). So we talked about his school, the weather, and guys he's reffed with (he reffed in a nearby town until recently). It calmed me down considerably.

The girls' game was about what we expected. The score was 30-2 after the first quarter, then 57-10 at half. The winning team took off the press early, but had a halfcourt trap that the losing team couldn't figure out. I wish they'd taken it off way earlier. We wound up calling way, way more fouls on the winning team than the losing team, mostly because the losing team was so timid. There were a few passes that I wasn't entirely comfortable with, but everyone in the gym knew what was going on, so it wasn't that big a deal.

I geared myself up for a blowout second game as well.

Not so much. What I got was my first good, close boys' varsity game.

The favored team was trailing at half. They threw the ball away quite often, and the underdogs kept hitting threes. The atmosphere in the gym was really, really intense...I think everyone was surprised to find a ballgame. But the favorites clamped down on D and hit their late free throws to win by 8.

The game was as smooth as anything. I had a fairly big moving screen call late against the winning team, when they were up by 3 with about 3 minutes to go. The coach for them shouted "What did he do????" I said "Hang on, coach," reported the foul, and then went to him. "It was a pretty ugly one, coach...he threw out a hip and a knee."

The coach then yelled in response.

At the player. "Come ON, Eddie! We don't need that!!!"

Yay.

Two things to work on: I'm falling into some old habits that I need to eradicate, namely shaking or nodding my head when I'm passing on a call (as if to say "No, that's not a charge" or "Clean block!" in my head). That's got to stop. Because I had a kid who I felt was flopping to try to draw a charge in front of me (if you're going to go down like you've been shot and scream a Charlie Brown-like "AAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHH!", players, this actually decreases your chances of drawing the foul. Make a note of it, kids.) I shook my head at the flop as my partner called it from T. I was a little annoyed that he called something that was about two yards away from me, but he later explained that he'd seen the offensive player get frustrated during the drive and throw out his arm (which he did, albeit not as much as the defender's bad acting made it look). Anyhow, if I hadn't shaken my head, the call would have been a much better sell to the coach.

The other is that I'm getting too loud. My voice is a little strained, and with my past vocal cord injuries, I need to keep an eye on that.

But on the whole, tonight was about 15 different kinds of awesome. I'm making really good progress, and might make a good boys' official down the road, if I'm not already.

THINGS I DID WELL: Call selection, hustle, coach communication
THINGS TO WORK ON: Quiet down, project more calm late in close games, no head-shaking
UP NEXT: A fairly big girls' game on Thursday night. Not hella-huge, mind you, but first place against middle-of-the-pack. Assignor said he put me on the game because the senior officials I'm working with told him I'm ready. They're all correct. I am ready. Bring it on.

Game Log 1/21/2009: Cruisin'

2009-01-21T22:13:00.000-08:00

Winless against sub-.500 tonight in a JV/varsity doubleheader. There were almost no problems.

The first game was a particularly icky blowout early. The winless girls, I think, were accustomed to getting creamed, as there really wasn't any frustration about them. The coach was a good guy who tried to find positives everywhere he could. He got frustrated late in the first half. A player for White had a fairly ugly reach...and it got all ball. I saw no contact and heard nothing but leather. The player still got the pass off to her teammate, who double-dribbled. As I ran down the court, winless coach said: "That was OBVIOUS." I told him no, I had all ball, and she got the pass off anyway. A minute later, the half ended.

As the second half began, winless coach said "I know I was upset in the first half, but here's what bothers me. I tell these kids that if they work hard, good things will happen...and then something like that happens and it's not rewarded." I responded as clearly as I could: "Coach, I understand your frustration, but I had all ball, and at halftime my partner said he had all ball too. Still, I'll keep an eye out. And whatever they're paying you, they should double it."

No more problems all night long. It wasn't a perfect game...we probably let a little too much go...but it wasn't too bad.

Varsity was as smooth as silk. Again, it was a total blowout--about a 40-point loss for winless, who often lose by 60 or more. This one, however, didn't have players as unskilled as the JV game, so we didn't ever ease up or take real passes. If anything, there were one or two I could have taken passes on.

The only real issue was rotating. Both teams were playing zones, and the offenses loved the big skip pass above everyone's head. It seemed like every time I would rotate, they'd throw that damn skip pass as soon as I got there. But partners had no issues with my rotation, and we only missed one or two.

No real issues here. Now, I've got a few days off. Actually, I only have 8 more nights I'll be working (2 a week for the next 4 weeks...I'm actually available for a few days where I am apparently unneeded). And I feel like it's been a good year. I hope to finish strong.

THINGS I DID WELL: Coach and partner communication
THINGS TO WORK ON: Resist temptation to let too much go in blowouts
NEXT UP: Boys/girls varsity doubleheader on Monday...at the same school that loved me (not) so much on MLK Day.

Game Log 1/19/2009: Growing a bit

2009-01-19T18:24:00.000-08:00

Girls/boys varsity doubleheader today...tiny rural school visits tiny religious school.

I was a little trepidatious about the girls game, because when I checked out the teams, one of them was losing by 60, 70, or even 80 points. Sure enough, the press was on in the first quarter, and the score was 27-4 after 8 minutes. Ouch. Thankfully, Blue took the press off from there and coasted to a 50-point victory. The losing coach wanted some calls that I think weren't there. I put up with what he had to say...didn't seem fair to get after him when his team was getting his butt kicked, and besides, he wasn't rude or crossing any lines. If anything, we let White get away with too much in the second half. If I had it to do over again, there were a couple of ones I let go that I could have called, even in such a massive blowout...but the game went off cleanly and safely, so it's all good.

The boys' game was far faster and more challenging than my first boys' varsity game a couple of weeks back. I had to adjust my game and my brain to the higher speed, and on the whole, with only one exception, I think I did.

Blue lost by 18, and the coach was a little annoyed. He wanted a call early--he felt a White rebounder jumped through the back. I was lead and saw the rebounder reach over the Blue kid's head. No contact, no foul. He said the rebounder also put a hand on the opponent's back. If he did, I was unable to see it from my perspective, but there sure wasn't much movement as a result.

Similarly, I had a no-call late in the first half on a play that resulted in a bit of a pileup under the hoop. I was lead, and I had the defender standing and waiting. Blue went up and sort of grazed White as he went down...hip glanced off of hip. No-call. Then, each of them got tangled and went down in a heap, along with a third player (where'd he come from?). I explained to coach what I saw...couldn't call a PC foul on your kid, coach, not enough contact. "What about the other defender who pushed him from behind?" he asked. "I couldn't see him through your kid," I said. This is, by the way, a perfect advertisement for a 3-man game.

So he was annoyed, but I felt fine about where I was.

The only mistake I wish I could rectify was a missed travel. I honestly think this came from me not quite being up to speed with this, the fastest game I've ever officiated in the season (had some quicker camp games this past summer). There was a fast break, and I got down the court. I focused on the defender and picked him up. OK--he's there. But while my attention was focused on the defender, the pass came in to a player who took 3 steps. I caught it peripherally, but because I didn't see it well, and because it happened pretty quickly, I didn't call it. I do think this sort of thing will come with time.

There was one other he didn't like. Twenty seconds left, and his team is fouling (why??? they're down by over a dozen!). The player wrapped his arms around...we called it a simple hold, as it didn't merit an intentional. both partner and I had the hold. Coach said that there was an elbow, "and that's why my player held." (The latter phrase doesn't make logical sense to me.) I didn't have anything to say back to him beyond thanking him for the information and telling him we'd look for it over the last few seconds. Under his breath, he said "God." I don't think he was worshipping me. But he was asking for so much all night that I don't trust his word much.

So, Blue is a little annoyed with me. He'll be thrilled to see me a week from tonight when I return to his gym.

All in all, it wasn't perfect, but it wasn't bad for a new level of challenge for me.

THINGS I DID WELL: Stayed under control. Kept boys' game from getting ugly in the fourth quarter.
THINGS TO WORK ON: Don't take so many passes in girls' game. Don't miss the offense's feet on fast breaks.
NEXT UP: Girls JV/Varsity on Wednesday.

This happened recently

2009-01-18T22:41:00.001-08:00

"Have you had Seuss High School's girls' team yet this year?" a fellow ref, John, asked me before the game. I was about to do a freshman game, he was about to do the JV and Varsity games.

"Yeah, I have," I replied.

"What's their coach like?"

"She's not a problem. There was barely any lip at all, but when I talked to her it all ended quickly."

"No. That's not what I mean. I hear she's really good-looking. Is she?"

I pause. "Well...yeah. Yes, I guess she is."

Another ref jumps into the conversation here. "You know, I don't even notice that stuff anymore. I've been married for 41 years!"

I think, then come in again. "I've only been married three and a half years. But I suspect I'll never stop noticing if a coach is good looking."

My long-married partner replies. "Well, John here wants to do far more than just notice."

John says: "Yeah. In fact, when I work Seuss next week, I'm going to make it a point in our pregame to say that I'll head over to talk to the good-looking coach about any close rulings or bizarre situations."

I wish John luck, but seriously...is there a worse situation to begin a romantic relationship than by interacting as ref and coach?

And how cool is my wife that I can relate this story to her and have her laugh?

Game log 1/15/09: One interesting dilemma in a good boys' game

2009-01-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

Tonight's boys game was quite good for us. There was whining throughout...a walk here, a moving screen here...and a little of it may have been warranted, but on the whole it was a strong day. I can see where it's a lot harder to ref lower levels of boys' ball than higher ones (except for the pressure from testosterone-addled coaches). But on the whole, no real issues.

Screens at the elbow. Damn hard in boys' ball. C's call! I'll keep my eye out, since I have a few 2-person (very small school) varsity games coming up.

Here's the dilemma I faced.

Third quarter of a close game. Suddenly, Red coach is annoyed. He says "If he gets to [don't know what he said] than I get to [unclear]."

At the next dead ball, it turned out what he was complaining about was that the White coach was out of the box.

I looked up. He was. Just a step or two, but he was near the table.

Hmmmm.

It's my job to keep coaches in their box, and I honestly hadn't noticed until the coach said something. I decided that, although it might make me appear weak, I'd tell him.

Coach was annoyed--"I'm barely out!" he said.

I said "Well, coach, the other coach is complaining, so I need to keep it fair."

Probably shouldn't have said that, as White coach started jawing across the table at Red coach. Thankfully, it ended quickly. If it hadn't, I'd have called a double technical...and BOTH coaches would have lost their box privileges!

Anyway, I guess I had three options:

1. Ignore the Red coach's complaint.
2. Do what I did, but not blame the other coach.
3. Do exactly what I did.

And, of course, one more:

4. Pay closer attention to the coach so that I can take care of this myself.

Any suggestions? Which would you have chosen?

The game was close late, and everything went all right...I was happy with how it went. I even handled strategic fouling correctly!

THINGS I DID WELL: Communication with partner, felt more confident, handled end of close game well.
THINGS TO WORK ON: Elbow screens, coach management,
NEXT UP: Doubleheader on MLK day. Boys' and girls' varsity, tiny little schools.

Game Log 1/14/09: Thanks, coach

2009-01-14T20:57:00.000-08:00

Just what I needed. A smooth, easy boys' JV game to get me out of my recent minor funk. Never felt out of it; always felt confident, and had my partner say to me a couple of times "Thanks for that get--I missed it!" No issues at all--save the losing team's captain.

He was carping and bitching at one point early in the third quarter. He believed he was being hand-checked. Neither partner or I had it, mostly because it wasn't happening. "Call it both ways," he yelled at me from about 15 feet as I was about to inbound the ball.

Since he's captain, I decided to approach him before inbounding. "Captain, I'll talk to you, but you can't talk to me like that." As I did this, he rolled his eyes and started walking away.

"No, captain, you need to stay here. If you want to talk, you can't bark at me like that."

I cut my losses (in retrospect, I think the "you need to stay here" was a high-risk statement...what if he hadn't?), and headed back to the sideline. As I did, I looked up and saw a sub coming to the table.

Loudmouth captain was out.

Coach is a stud...and yet he was about to grow even more in my estimation.

I was right in front of his bench when one of captain's teammates was taking the ball across halfcourt. An opponent was right there on him. He briefly put a hand on him...not even any pressure, really just a couple of fingers. Captain yelled: "Call him for the hands!"

Coach turned to him and said: "It's called good defense. Have you heard of that?"

Loudmouth captain said, in that inimitable 15-year-old sarcastic know-it-all voice, "No."

After the game, I told the girls' head coach, as he let me into the locker room, that I'd appreciate him passing on my gratefulness to the JV boys' coach. He asked for the story, and when I told him, he said "Let me guess. Short kid, dark hair, point guard?"

Apparently refs aren't the only people this kid gives trouble to!

Anyway. Awesome game. Minor complaints from coach, both of which were factually accurate and which I was able to explain. He wanted an "over the back" call on rebounds where the opponent was jumping straight up behind his player and plucking the ball from the air above him. I said to him: "Coach, I just see him jumping straight up and reaching over." He said, bafflingly, "Yeah! That's right! Reaching over!" My response: "Coach, if there's no contact, there's no foul." He had nothing to say back to that.

Great night. Tomorrow, I have the same team that didn't like me the other day, but I feel all fresh and new. Looking forward to a great game.

THINGS I DID WELL: Call selection, coach management, didn't get beat
THINGS TO WORK ON: Captain management? Maybe try a slightly different approach next time, even though this one went well. Also, my partner apparently wanted me to bail him out of a bad out-of-bounds call he made, but I was running downcourt and couldn't do it. Stay around for that.
NEXT UP: Boys' freshman game tomorrow.

Need a little help--de facto caseplay I'll see in boys' games

2009-01-13T21:27:00.001-08:00

Here's one that never happens with girls, and that I'll need to get right for boys.

Defender jumps straight up.

Shooter driving jumps quite a ways away, headed towards a layup or dunk.

The two collide in midair. Big collision...both players wind up with limbs flailing. Shooter gets off a shot.

By the book, this is a player control foul, since the defender is entitled to his vertical space.

How is it called in the real world? How do you call it? What do you look for?

Game Log 1/12/09: A mistake I won't be making again

2009-01-12T20:44:00.000-08:00

Sometimes this blog feels like a confessional booth. One who reads this would probably think that I'm not a very good ref. I hope that my continued upwardly-mobile varsity assignments would counter that. But if I'm gonna do this, I've got to do it warts and all. And I learn a lot more posting warts than posting airbrushed-centerfold games.

Boys' freshman game tonight. Quick kids--challenging game. I actually think that all the girls' varsity I've done this year has been bad for my boys' games. Last year, before they started giving me varsity, I went back and forth between boys' and girls' freshman games most of the year. This year, this is only my third boys' game. I think that my brain and my demeanor are a little different...I'm less confident than I should be.

Nonetheless, the game went fairly routinely, except that there was a bit of a foul disparity in the first half. Blue had a bit more than White. Wasn't a huge deal. Blue didn't care for one or two calls, and I explained them. Blue players and fans got a little bitchy. I dealt.

It was close late. I felt like we were adjusting well to the game (my first call of the game was a good blocking call). I wasn't 100% comfortable with my partner, not because he was bad, but because he seldom made eye contact with me. But hey, nobody's perfect. Calls felt good. Partner was supportive. And then Blue trailed by 3 points with 40 seconds left.

Strategic fouling time. I told myself to get the first one.

They called time out. White inbounded the ball. A few passes, and then I got the first one, a little touch foul.

The place erupted: players, coach, fans.

Damn. They weren't fouling.

I went over to the angry coach and told him the only thing I could possibly tell him--the truth. "Coach, I thought you were fouling. If you weren't, I shouldn't have called that, and I blew it."

Blue coach said "OK." Class act.

As it turned out, I did Blue a favor, since White missed both free throws. Blue had several shots to either tie or bring it to within one. They missed four shots (getting every rebound) before time expired.

OK. Now the kicking-of-self will go on until my next game. If you wipe away this late mistake, the calls were OK, but I felt timid, sort of like it's my first year all over again (which, for boys' ball, isn't far off). I'll get a chance to go back into the fire again on Wednesday, when I do a JV boys' game which includes one of the better programs in the area (in other words, a really fast, challenging game for me). I'll get that one right.

I simply won't coach anymore. I'll be aware of what could happen in a situation, but I won't anticipate it and take the move out of the coach's hands. If I won't call it as a normal foul, I won't call it as a strategic foul.

Seems like such a stupid thing to have to learn. There shouldn't have been a first time for this mistake--although I can hardly be the first one. Or, more likely, there are others who make the mistake the other way around...don't call the first strategic foul, so the second winds up being ugly or violent.

Maybe I just got too amped up late.

In any event, I'm looking forward to getting back out there so that I can get this damn thing out of my craw.

Oh. My partner stuck around on the floor after the game (NOT what I want to do), so I wound up getting back to the locker room alone. It was locked. So I had to walk back out into the hall to get the key. Much to my surprise, a guy said "Good game, stripes." (Of course, another called me horrible just as I passed. I elected not to turn around...)

THINGS I DID WELL: Actually pretty consistent on foul calls, wasn't beat more than once
THINGS TO WORK ON: Don't anticipate strategic foul, get brain going faster, project less timidity
NEXT UP: Boys' JV, big schools, on Wednesday (with no attached varsity game...interesting).

So what is an illegal screen, anyway?

2009-01-10T23:32:00.000-08:00

Because of the title of this blog, in addition to my small number of loyal readers (and I thank you guys), I get a very large number of people who hit this page searching for information on illegal screens. For instance, just in the past month or two, I have had hits (often way more than one) on the following search terms:

illegal screen
basketball illegal screen
illegal screen in basketball
define illegal screen
is an illegal screen a foul?
team control foul examples illegal screen
shoot 1 and 1 on illegal screen?
illegal screen out of bounds

The fact that so many people come here indicates to me that there might not be other, better information up higher on Google than this humble little ref blog. So I figure I might as well try to do a little education here by laying out the illegal screen rule as clearly as I can.

Please note that all of the following information refers to NFHS basketball rules for 2008/09. Interested in NCAA, FIBA, or NBA rules? I don't have them. (If you read this blog and are an NCAA or FIBA official, feel free to put any variations in the comments. If you read this blog and are an NBA official, I'd love it if you did the same, but I'm also pretty danged sure you aren't allowed to comment in such a manner...)

Okay. Let's start basic.

What is a screen?

A screen is a maneuver by a player (almost always offensive, although there's no reason in the rulebook that a defensive player can't set one) which requires an opponent to either run around or collide with them, usually to create an advantage a teammate of the screener.

What does a LEGAL screen look like?

To be a legal, a screener must be:

--stationery (with two minor exceptions listed below),
--standing with feet shoulder width apart or less,
--standing without extending the arms, elbows, hips, or knees outside the frame of the body.

So that's it?

Nope. There are restrictions on where and when a screen can be set. As the NFHS rulebook says, time and distance are factors in a screen's legality.

In general, the following rule of thumb must be followed:

The screener must give the screened player a real opportunity to avoid contact with the screener.

That means different things in different situations.

Okay...so where and when can a screen be set?

Keeping the above rule of thumb in mind, the answer is...it depends.

If the screener is within the visual confines of a stationary opponent, he/she can set the screen anywhere short of touching the opponent. A millimeter away would be legal because the screened player would be able to avoid contact since he/she could see the screen.

If the screener is outside the visual confines of a stationary defender, he/she must set the screen at least one step away from the opponent. This step gives the screened player the legitimate chance to avoid contact. Think about it...if the player the opponent is guarding runs in that direction, the opponent more than likely will turn his/her head at least a bit in giving chase, thus putting the screener into his/her visual field.

If the opponent is moving, the same rule of thumb applies: there must be a legitimate chance to avoid contact. Here's how NFHS spells that out:

If the screener is screening a moving opponent, he/she must set the screen somewhere between one and two strides from the opponent, so as to give the defender "time and distance" to stop or change direction. The distance will vary based on the speed of the screened player. NFHS does not distinguish between whether this screen is within or outside the screened player's visual field, so the 1-2 strides applies to both.

Ouch! If the screened player can't see the screen, there could be a big collision. What's the call?

It could be nothing. If the screener remains more or less stationary (allowing for minor movements to protect him/herself), and the opponent is unaware, then POW, but neither player has done anything illegal--no foul to call. If the screener throws forward hands, pelvis, knees, chest, etc. and initiates contact, that's an illegal screen. If the opponent is aware that the screener is there but runs through and knocks the screener over, that's a foul on the opponent. Even if the opponent is unaware of the screener, if he/she actively pushes or grabs the screener once the collision begins and he/she becomes aware, that's also a foul on the opponent.

But, to reiterate, a nasty collision between a stationary screener and an unaware opponent is a stone-cold no-call unless the screener has the ball and is knocked back, in which case a foul must be called on the opponent--since that'd be a terribly unfair travel call otherwise.

(NFHS puts it this way: "[T]he opponent may make inadvertent contact with the screener, and if the opponent is running rapidly, the contact may be severe. Such a case is to be ruled as incidental contact provided the opponent stops or attempts to stop on contact and moves around the screen, and provided the screener is not displaced if he/she has the ball.")

Is there any acceptable way that a screener may move?

A screener is allowed to move in the same path and direction as the opponent. So, for example, if the opponent is moving towards the sideline, the screener may legally move in front of him/her towards the same sideline.

Also, once a screener has established position, it is perfectly legal for him/her move a little to brace him/herself in anticipation of contact, provided he/she does not initiate any part of the contact. That's a key distinction.

However, other than that, no, a screener may NOT move. If they do, it's an illegal screen.

Common illegal screen movements include the aforementioned throwing out of a knee, hip, elbow, or shoulder to try to clip an opponent going by, or throwing the pelvis, stomach, forearms, or chest forward to make contact a bit more painful when it occurs. Both of these are no-nos, and if contact occurs, it's a foul.

What's the penalty for an illegal screen? Do we shoot free throws?

It depends on when it happens.

Most illegal screens are set by the offense while team control belongs to the screener. This is considered a team control foul. No free throws are shot on team control fouls.

However, not all illegal screens are during team control. For example, there is no team control on a throw-in until the ball is controlled in-bounds. (This is why a team can chuck the ball from its own endline into its backcourt on a throw-in and not get called for over-and-back...they never had team control in the frontcourt.) This is NOT considered a team control foul, and the non-fouling team would shoot free throws: one-and-one if the bonus is in effect, two if it's double-bonus time. (Please note that the opposite is true in NCAA and NBA basketball, where the offended player would not shoot because there is team control on a throw-in under their rules. See Massref's comment below.)

The same would be true in other situations where there's not team control, like after a shot is released but before it is gathered on a rebound, although I'm having trouble imagining a screen at those times. Still, if it happens then, it's not a team control foul.

Can you sum all that up for me?

Sure! Happy to. The screener has to set the screen in a way that gives the opponent a chance to avoid contact by stopping or changing direction. The distance that must be given varies by situation; namely, the visibility of the screener and the speed of the opponent. The screener may move in the same path and direction as the opponent.

The screener must stay within his/her vertical plane: no throwing body parts forward to maximize pain, damage, or psychological trauma to the opponent.

The screener must also keep body parts, from feet up through the shoulders, inside the usual bodily frame...no throwing out extremities to the side to clip an opponent, "bump a cutter," or make him/her run farther.

The screened player must attempt to avoid contact. No intentionally plowing through the screener, or pushing or grabbing to clear up their path.

If an unaware opponent collides with a stationary screener, the result may be quite a spectacular crash...but there's no foul unless the screener has the ball and is displaced (i.e, is forced to travel). (And yes, you can set a screen with the ball.)

We don't shoot free throws for an illegal screen if the screener's team has team control. However, remember that there is no team control on throw-ins, and so illegal screens committed before the ball is secured in-bounds on a throw-in are NOT team control fouls. The aggrieved team will shoot free throws on those fouls if they're in the bonus.

I hope this clears things up for the many illegal screen Googlers who land here. Best of luck with your seasons.

Game Log 1/9/2009: A mistake and a T

2009-01-09T23:23:00.000-08:00

Not the best night tonight. Nothing cataclysmically bad; no big fights or tragic errors or anything like that. But I didn't feel like we had a good night as a crew. I'll have to shake these off and move on.

The JV game (between two nearby tiny rural high schools...the gym was rocking) was very, very low quality. We probably passed on dozens of travels just to keep things moving along. I don't remember much from the game. My partners had a minor issue with lining up on a free throw, and there was something else I forgot, but it was a blowout. Between games, I said we needed to get back into things mentally.

Then something bizarre happened and I didn't respond well. I need to do the right thing in bizarre situations right off the bat.

Partner calls a foul as C, opposite table. There are two Red subs waiting at the table. From my position as T by the table becoming L at the other end, I turn around to start heading downcourt as partner is approaching to report his fouls. The two subs start running onto the court. I hold up a palm. "Wait! Stop! Don't go! Hold on!" The Red coach is yelling the same thing. But these kids are hell bent at running into the game. They pass me by as I'm trying to keep them from entering...one kid on either side of me!

This has never happened to me before at any level...kids doing this. It's so terribly rudimentary. Maybe that's why I kicked into 5th-grade-game mode and turned around and said "No, kids, get back on the sideline." They did, and I headed downcourt.

This is the primary mistake that led to the bigger, uglier mistake. I should have simply T'd the kids. This is freaking varsity. They need to know the rule. There would have been zero coach pushback. He was trying to keep them from going in just as much as I was!

But instead, I sent them back to the sideline. And ran downcourt (second mistake) assuming that my partner would beckon in the subs after the foul and handle them (third mistake). I needed to take charge; instead I sort of ceded it. They were his subs...he was at the table...but I was sort of involved at this point.

Then White inbounds the ball. Two dribbles into them walking the ball upcourt, a Red player dashes to the bench. They'd had six on the floor. It was fast enough and far away enough that I didn't call the required techincal foul (the one that I should have called when the players ran by me in the damn first place). That's the fourth, and probably the worst, error. I damn well should have called the T there if nothing else. I think somewhere, in my mind, I rationalized that that six-player situation was sort of my fault, and I got timid and just said "let's get on with it." Of course, the White coach wanted to know what the hell happened. She chatted with my partner, who said "it's not a correctable error, coach, and I didn't see it." I'm glad it wasn't me in that conversation. Not because coach was mad...she was civil...but because I had absolutely zero leg to sound on.

Stupid, stupid error...TWICE. It is a crew error...my partners had chances to make it right just as I did...but I need to learn to be less timid and more of a leader. And teach kids the rules not by "being nice" but by assessing penalties for stuff like this.

Anyhow, none of this is related to the T, which was my first in over two years. And while I didn't feel we had a great game tonight, the T was rock-solid. The losing coach was getting pasted, but he was also bitching a lot...about nearly everything. I talked with him once or twice. In the third quarter, as kids ran in for a time-out, he yelled across the floor and across the gym at me: "Three seconds! DUH!!!" [The "duh" was done in unique 14-year-old fashion...see those mouth corners goign back and that beginning to an eye-roll? This junior-high moment has been brought to you by a man in his 40s or 50s.]

That move certainly made a T warranted--it's pretty lousy sportsmanship. But I decided to cut the guy a little bit of slack--he was losing, and the time-out moment didn't feel right. So during the time out I told my partners I'd be warning the coach as soon as the time out was over. I did. I said that shouting "Duh!" across the gym wasn't appropriate sportsmanship. His response was predictable: "Well, you've got to call the push on 22 White!" (Funny...he didn't even remember the three-seconds call he wanted when the time-out began!) I said "I'll watch for it, coach, but no more from you tonight." Well, I did see 22 White pushing right away, and I called it. But three or four trips down the floor later, I was C right in his pocket when, at the end of his offensive possession, he shouted, "You call that on us, why not call it on them?"

Technical foul. When I say "no more,' that's exactly what it means.

Hooray for the warning. When partner seatbelted him, partner said that the coach said "You guys need to call some hand checks!" (Again, changing to some other thing.) "All I said was you need to call it on us if not them...well...I guess he did give me a warning." HOORAY FOR THE WARNING. Coach actually joked with me later in the game, and honored the seat belt rule.

There was a pretty ragged 4-5 minutes that followed though. He was better, but his team was sort of pissed off (they were down by 30), and a lot of crap went on. Nothing ugly, just crap. We called what we had to, passed on what we could, and got out.

So, even though it wasn't a great night, my coach management was pretty good (I also had told an assistant coach--via Red's head coach--that she couldn't yell for calls, that I'd talk to the head coach but not the assistants). But that one mistake...ick. At least it happened in a blowout small-school game I'll get it right next time.

THINGS I DID WELL: Coach management, physically better
THINGS TO WORK ON: Don't use varsity ball to teach rules; use it to enforce them. Better crew communication, better leadership.
NEXT UP: Freshman boys game on Monday. I'll lay low this weekend...I've been busy lately, and while I'll be glad when the check comes, I do need a bit of a break. My wife and cat miss me.

Calling all trainers

2009-01-08T23:14:00.000-08:00

The quadricep is slightly sore. It hurts when I lift my foot off the ground, particularly in a full run. I noticed it first late in the second quarter of the boys' game. I think it actually got better in the second half, and I was only beat down the court once. I've iced it twice (for about 20 minutes each).

Any recommendations for how to get my 3-person girls' games in tomorrow? Do I stretch it while I work (I'm a teacher), ice it up, heat it, attach electrodes, do self-acupuncture?

Then, any recommendations for what to do over the restful weekend to get it back for my games next week?

Seriously...give me your advice.

Game Log 1/8/2009: This one is memorable.

2009-01-08T22:55:00.000-08:00

Two first-ever occurrences tonight. My first-ever double-overtime game, then my first-ever boys' varsity game.

Damn it, why did they have to occur in that order? I'm a non-athlete, damn it!

First game was kind of fun. Really intense late. Partner and I had it under control. Green had a large lead early when they couldn't seem to miss a shot, but next thing you know, the game was tied with three minutes left. Then, NEITHER TEAM SCORED for the last three minutes! Ick. I did have a pretty big Player Control foul that I had to sell because I didn't see it as well as I would like. No complaints, but hey. It was one of those two-person things...I took my eye off the post as lead to pick up the drive coming from the same side, and a defender up a little ways, but out on a wing, seemed to be there. In 3-person, that's trail's call all the way. In 2-person, it's a bit of no-man's land, so I picked a call and sold it.

The girls were not terribly skilled--these were, after all, a couple of really tiny schools--so we passed on a fair number of travels (and also called quite a few of them).

The boys' game went strangely. In the first half, my partner called 7 fouls while I called only 2. I honestly didn't see anything that I needed to get on. For a while, I was wondering if I was missing something...but ultimately, I think my partner, while a good guy, was overzealous. I don't partner bash here (and wouldn't bash this nice guy even if I could), but there were enough that were sort of in my area that I'm pretty sure that he was reaching a bit. I had a few more in the second half, and there was barely a peep from either coach (one wanted three seconds on the opposition...he kept asking for it when the opponent was in the paint for about 2.5 seconds, and I was consistent about not calling it so vigilantly on both sides).

So it's all good. I did make it through the second half of the second game with my right quad barking a bit. It hurts (not much, but a little) when I take my foot off the ground and push it forward as I run. Even with this hampering me, I only remember being beaten twice in the second half. This makes me feel a bit manly. Not as manly as not getting hurt in the goddam first place would make me feel, but I still played through pain. I've iced it twice now, and will ice it and take Advil tomorrow. The goal is to do my girls JV/Varsity doubleheader (3-person, thank goodness) and then rest all weekend before 3 subvarsity (2-person, damn it all) boys' games next week.

Thus--my deflowering for boys' varsity. Not bad overall.

An experienced official was there, and watched the second half (and overtimes) of the girls' game and the first half of the boys'. He came at halftime and gave some constructive criticism to my partner (said he called some things in my area). His question for me was thus: "Late in that girls' game (actually the second overtime), you called a pushing off foul on the offense while they were inbounding the ball. Why did you give them free throws?" Hell, that's easy. "No team control yet on the throw-in, so we shot the double-bonus." His response: "That's what I thought. I figured it wasn't team control because you can throw the ball to the backcourt and it's not over-and-back." So a compliment! No criticisms! Yay! I know the rule!

So, quadricep permitting, we move along. We'll see how I feel in the morning.

THINGS I DID WELL: Kept cool in pressure situations, had a weird rule call correct late, had a patient whistle, especially in boys' game
THINGS TO WORK ON: Conditioning, damn it. That and picking up more defenders when lead in 2-person. Too much tunnel vision.
NEXT UP: Small school girls' JV and Varsity (albeit not microscopic like tonight).

Singing on the sideline

2009-01-06T23:07:00.000-08:00

As I was waiting on the sideline before tonight's Varsity game, it occurred to me that maybe "Stacy's Mom" isn't an appropriate song for the high school band to rock out to. I mean, seriously, I love the song (probably should get it on my iPod). But a high school band? Ick.

So I sidled over to partner #1 and said "Do you know this song?" He didn't. So I sang the chorus to him. "Eww! That's disgusting!", he said.

I sidled over to partner #2, who, in spite of being about my age, also did not know the song. Sang the chorus to her as well. "That's sick! That's just wrong!", she said.

I've got to admit that, if I were a HS band director, I'd lay off of it. But it's singable enough that I sang along in my pregame. I like that.

I guess I'm torn.

Game Log 1/6/2009: Some thoughts about running

2009-01-06T22:31:00.000-08:00

JV/Varsity girls, each about a 20-point spread. No major issues to report in either that I remember...only one brief chat with a coach and nothing much else. We did fine.

At halftime of the varsity game, a partner had a pretty good observation for me that has led to my old bugaboo...running. I'm a slow non-athlete whose running style has gone from laughable to passable. (I'm happy with passable...as long as I'm not noticed for negative reasons, I'll take that.) She said that I'd been beat down the floor three times. I don't think that I had, but I'll take her word. (One of the cases we remember was actually me missing a previous rotation.) Her next comment was a bit of an eye-opener (in the positive sense). She said that getting beat wasn't bad--what was bad was that I seemed to always be running the same (molasses-slow) speed. If I kicked into a new gear, things would be better.

I declared at that moment that I would NOT GET BEAT in the second half.

And I didn't. Except once. (I was trail during a scramble near halfcourt that I had to step in on and hold up for...then Red passed the ball out and ran for a layup. I was doomed, and held up at the end to get an angle from on the floor rather than run myself into a crappy angle to get to the baseline.)

My partner said that she saw a new speed from me...and that that was good, as it gave the appearance of hustle.

It makes sense, actually. And I think it's one of the problems I have with the physical image I give off. I look like I'm not hustling.

It's not laziness that causes this, methinks. It's concentration...trying to get a good angle, trying not to be hauling ass (because one cannot make good calls at full speed). But the impression I'll give by having a new gear and committing to NEVER GETTING BEAT (even though I will) will likely help.

I'll get good practice at my next game. For the fourth time, I'm slated for my first boys' varsity game on Thursday. The first three were delayed due to (in order) floods, ice, and snow. I'm expecting locusts to descend on my city shortly to prevent me from making my boys' varsity debut yet again...Anyway. I'll make it a point to run hard and not get beat. Because even boys at this very very small school will be quite fast. We'll see how it goes, see how I look.

I haven't looked closely at my Monday night game yet: I will investigate to see if I'm getting beat. (I don't think I was, but it's worth a look with this new information.)

Anyway, this is what's on my mind after these games, which went fine.

THINGS I DID WELL: Good calls, good passes in JV game (we'd have been there all night)
THINGS TO WORK ON: Still poaching across key as L. I must stop. Also, don't get beat.
NEXT UP: Very small religious school vs. very small private school. Girls varsity and boys' varsity. Thursday.

Game Log 1/5/2009: Videotape night...

2009-01-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

I had a buddy come and videotape the varsity half of today's girls' JV/Varsity doubleheader. I'll look forward to seeing how it went.

JV game was quite uneventful. I can't recall any calls I'd like back. It was a little strange...at some point I started noticing that most of my calls were going against White rather than Red. I'm sure I had at least one foul call against Red along the way, but about 6 or 7 against White (this in the third quarter, or maybe early fourth). It was just one of those bizarre things; the foul count was roughly even. Anyhow, I came in on a jump ball on the far side of the paint. I was C; it wasn't really quite my area, but it was my call, as neither L nor T could see the tie-up. Red coach was upset. "You're calling fouls down there, and they're all fouls, but my kid got knocked three times before you called that jump ball." At a loss (why didn't I fall back on "I hear you"???), instead I said "That's not what I saw." I wasn't in a position to see the knocks, of course, and my partners had taken a pass on them...Anyway, his response was "Of course you didn't!" Play then went to the other end of the court, and coach shouted something I forgot...something about arms or a street fight...some military metaphor, maybe?...and I showed him my palm from there. A couple seconds later, his girl bumped a shooter for an and-one. Coach thought the call was retaliation...muttered it, but didn't say it loud enough to matter. The rest of the JV game was uneventful. Liked my game.

Varsity first half was U-G-L-Y. My partners and I were clearly the best team on the floor. We probably called about 30 fouls. No fun. I remember thinking we could have passed on some of our first-quarter calls, but the second-quarter calls were all tired kids grabbing and slapping; nothing to pass on there. Coaches were mostly okay...I chatted with the White coach about shouting out calls, but it was a little deal.

Two really good calls and on bad one. Both good calls were player control. The first was on a fast break. I'm new lead. I'm ahead of the play (not bad for a slow guy). I'm looking over my shoulder and I see the primary defender is running parallel to the dribbler. All right. I'm not going to get a good look at that over my shoulder, and T is behind me looking right through the daylight between them anyway. My job: find that secondary defender; and there she was, waiting inside the block, right in front of the rim. Waiting for a while. Collision; easy PC foul, wave off the basket. It's not the call that's a big deal to me (like I said, she'd been there a while). It's that I consciously picked up the secondary defender and stone-cold knew that she'd been waiting. Yay me.

The second was weirder and more controversial, but my position made it a damn good call. I'm new trail when White retrieves the ball in the corner (along Red's end line). A Red defender comes and does what she should, which is stand stock still with her hands in the air in the corner. White gets a look in her eye and then leans in and bonks her (bicep/shoulder to the defender's belly) to get some room. Nope. Advantage gained, contact initiated, good defense established...Player control. In front of White's bench, alas...but since I was right on there in the corner with the players, I saw the player lean in. Coach only saw the defender's back. She was annoyed, but my positioning gave me exactly what I wanted. Twice. Yee-haw.

The only one I want back was a quick-whistle illegal dribble call. Red dribbled past half-court, then put both hands on the ball as White put a hand underneath it. Red sort of pushed through White's hand to put the ball back on the floor, and I too-quickly called it a double-dribble. It probably showed on my face, and if Red have asked, I'd have said "That's not my favorite call of the night, coach." As it is, during the subsequent time out, partner came over to say "I saw the ball knocked out of her hand." I said "Yeah, it was a terrible call." He responded, "What are we going to do about it?" I said "nothing." I guess I could have called an inadvertent whistle, etc., but with nobody complaining (and a 15-point fourth-quarter game), it was best just to tell myself to focus better and move on.

It proved to be a momentary lapse. Good game overall.

THINGS I DID WELL: Picked up secondary defenders. Called consistent travels.
THINGS TO WORK ON: Perhaps overzealous coach communciation. Mental lapse late. The rest we'll save for the video!
NEXT UP: Tomorrow. Another girls JV/Varsity doubleheader. Slightly smaller teams.

The European players loved me!

2009-01-02T22:24:00.001-08:00

In fact, when I called one of them for a fairly obvious hold on a rebound, she looked at me and shouted "Nein!"

I think that was her ranking of the call on a one-to-ten scale! Yup...I was that good!

Game Log 1/2/2009: International night

2009-01-02T22:13:00.000-08:00

A traveling girls' team from Europe played one of the strongest local teams this afternoon. JV and Varsity. Unfortunately, the barnstormers were not at all of the caliber of the home team, and in each game the fell behind gravely early due to the press. The brunt of both games was spent just keeping stuff under control.

The varsity game had a shot of getting quite ugly in the second quarter...I could see the European girls getting frustrated. But it all calmed down quite quickly after halftime...I think they had cooled off, and with the press off, the second half went quickly and smoothly...two teams just playing ball.

Only one I'd like back. There was an out-of-bounds violation. A player saved the ball under her own hoop, took three or four steps along the out-of-bounds side of the baseline. I saw her doing it, but the play was elsewhere, so I figured, no advantage, let it go. Then she stepped in bounds, got a pass, and fired it home. Should have whistled that as soon as she got the pass, but alas. That imperfection only serves to make the rest of my work more impressive...

And I'm curious as to your opinion about the following:

I twice had the following call: player from Red driving to the hoop. She picks up the ball low--about knee level--on her way to shoot it up high. A nearby defender reaches in. Gets her wrist. I toot it, and whistle continuation. Two shots (or one, had it gone in).

After the game, partner told me that when the ball is down at knee level, anything goes. I'm not sure I buy that. I do think I probably could have a more patient whistle to see if there's an advantage gained, but "anything goes"? A kid playing lazy defense and just reaching to take a slap? Do any readers have an "anything goes if the ball is low" philosophy on drives? I'd like a second opinion on this.

A smooth, easy night. Like stealing money.

THINGS I DID WELL: Kept it from getting out of control, mostly stayed mentally in two boring games
THINGS TO WORK ON: Still occasionally have trouble on V-back switches, still mostly only raising my right hand to signal fouls or violations (but I did do the left hand ONCE today! Yay!)
NEXT UP: Girls JV/Varsity tilt on Monday. I'm doing four out of five nights next week.

Game Log 12/30/2008...Resumption

2008-12-30T21:23:00.001-08:00

Uneventful JV Girls' game tonight. To my surprise, I was working with a higher-up college guy tonight. Maybe they couldn't find anyone else for the 4PM start, but there we were, me at the bottom of the varsity list and him at the top, working together on a JV game.

The game featured some borderline screens up high that we probably should have called in the first half. We agreed at halftime that we'd start calling them, but they cleaned up in the second half...the third quarter flew by. The quality of play wasn't too bad for JV girls (this doesn't mean it was good, though). It was a close game that Blue won by 5 with a few key late buckets.

I'm thinking about my approach to coaches, which has developed into not hearing them. My partner spent a LOT of time in conversation with players and coaches. We wound up warning both coaches, but I'm noticing that this year I'm just not bothered by them...what barking there has been this year has gone right by me. I've thought this was a good thing...but watching my partner's different philosophy today has changed my mind. I think it's really better to be aware so we can nip it in the bud. It certainly would have made this game easier...

This led to a discussion of how to handle a game with one loud coach and one quiet one. Partner said--I think wisely--that the quiet coach will get the impression, rightly or wrongly, that the refs are being "worked." So I guess I'll try to increase my game awareness.

Indeed, if anything went wrong tonight, it was that I was too tunneled. I tooted my whistle across the key (forgiveable in two-man) and called the foul, all before I noticed that my partner had his fist in the air (not forgiveable ever). So I just need to--same as ever--SLOW DOWN.

Oh, two other things. I told myself I'd call every foul and violation with my left hand tonight. That didn't happen. I still need work on this.

And there was one rule that I should have stepped forward and enforced. There was an injury right in front of Blue's bench. I beckoned the Blue coach onto the floor (although he didn't have to leave his seat). After about 90 seconds, the player popped up and my partner went to inbound the ball. I said "Wait, that injured player has to leave the game...ah, never mind." Should have been stronger and enforced the rule properly.

But I'm being fairly hard on myself. I did a lot well, too. When Blue #11 committed a foul that made her upset at my partner, I noticed them having words. Immediately thereafter, Blue #11 fouled again...a good one. While it was outside of my area, I went ahead and tooted it. It was a double-whistle, but to prevent 11 from blowing her top even more at my official, I ran out and said "I've got this one." Pretty good watching-partner's-back and preventitive officiating, if I say so myself.

So, a decent day. But my legs were dragging. 2-man mechanics and the long break didn't do me any favors. I'll try to work out over the next couple of days for my Friday doubleheader.

THINGS I DID WELL: In sync with partner, good, consistent travel calls, enough game awareness to help partner out in weird situation
THINGS TO WORK ON: Conditioning, don't get lazy with sub rules, probably let too much go in post
NEXT: Friday girls' doubleheader. The best program in our area against someone from out of town I'm not familiar with. Could be great; could be awful. I'm ready for either.

Cancellations galore...

2008-12-23T18:29:00.000-08:00

and I'm at 2 weeks without a game as of tonight. Nothing slated until a week from today, either. The first week was by design (medical absence). The second week we were pulverized by weather. And next week is light because of the holiday.

In other news, I've gotten my first set of peer evaluations back, and I continue to passionately dislike peer evaluation. I hate doing them, and I hate receiving them. They've put in all of the numbers, and my partners have given me a score that I can't interpret the meaning of. Geez. Speaking as an educator, I hate it when people give assessments that don't mean anything and can't be used to improve.

Some feedback indicates that I need to stand up straighter and tighter mechanics. Guilty as charged. The same guy wrote that he'd work with me at any level, so that makes me feel good even if the score was a shade low. Someone else wrote that I "appeared lost on dead balls." Maybe that was one of the days that I was struggling back and forth between 2- and 3-man mechanics...maybe it was one of the most recent games where I was really sleepy, or maybe he's just full of it. Another guy said I "never moved as Lead." Maybe I had an off night, or maybe the defense was in a zone and moving was superfluous, or maybe he's just full of it. (And, on top of this, I don't remember any partners asking me at halftime or at a dead ball to move more as lead. For them not to tell me during the game but to ding me severely on an evaluation for it is flat-out crap.)

The point is that I DON'T KNOW HOW TO TAKE THESE EVALUATIONS WITHOUT KNOWING THE GAME THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT.

As such, they're useless to me. Neither I nor anybody else can get better through this assessment method. Plus, during a game, I'm concentrating more on the game than on how I'll evaluate my partners. And on top of that, knowing you'll be evaluated in every game by every partner is NOT good for us. It means we might be too quick to cave in to partners' ideas rather than fight for what is right.

Keep in mind none of this is me bitching about numbers. I've made an agreement with myself to stop doing this the day I get hung up on numbers. It's about getting better.

If I gave my students comments on their essays without showing them their own writing and examples of the things they were doing well and things they could work on, they wouldn't learn.

If a coach wrote down everything an athlete was doing well or doing poorly, but waited until two weeks later to tell them their strengths and weaknesses, they wouldn't learn.

But that's what we're expected to do here. And it frustrates me, because there are many better ways to do this.

Sigh....this is speaking like a man who may now be compelled to join the damn evaluation committee...

Looks like I took the wrong week off.

2008-12-18T20:11:00.001-08:00

After my weeklong medically-imposed break, I've had a weeklong weather-imposed break. Tonight's freshman game was cancelled, and forecasts are bleak for tomorrow's boy/girl small-school varsity doubleheader.

After that, my next game is Monday...unless I'm marooned by weather on my holiday trip out of town.

I see the practice and money going away...but what can you do?

Talk to the hand

2008-12-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

In a meeting recently, we were told that the traditional showing-the-coach-the-palm needs to be changed. You know what I'm talking about...the stop-sign, the international gesture for "Stop doing that right now." We were told that it is seen as disrespectful. We were recommended we replace it with a gesture which has the palm pointed downward and moved a little towards the floor, as if to say "Calm down. Take it easy."

I'm having trouble doing this. I want to show the coach my palm.

Two reasons:

1. The above. I certainly intend no disrespect, but if I'm saying "No more, coach," I want my gesture to say what my words are saying. Seriously, I've even practiced saying "That's enough, coach...no more" while moving one or both downward-turned palms towards the floor. It feels bizarre. I can't do it.

2. Plus, if I have to give a T to a coach after said warning, I want any videotaped evidence of the game to show that I showed him/her my palm (in a calm, respectful manner, of course). If it looks like I'm trying to calm and placate him/her (as the downward-palm gesture does), then have to whack him/her with a T...well, it'll look inconsistent and surprising. But if I clearly show the "no more" gesture, then T him/her later, it'll look (correctly) like the coach ignored my warning.

I think I'll risk it. Talk to the hand, loudmouthed coach.

First varsity boys' game...

2008-12-16T20:46:00.000-08:00

is delayed. Weather kept the visiting team from making it to town tonight. Of course, nobody let me know, or (I think) let my assignor know. When I made it to the gym, I walked in on a practice, and the coach said "Didn't anyone tell you? Games were cancelled." I hope I get paid.

But my freshman game on Friday has been scrapped and replaced by another tiny-school boys/girls varsity doubleheader. So my debut has merely been postponed, not scrapped entirely.

Next up: Thursday. Girls freshman. Probable blowout.

I've got some good news...

2008-12-10T22:33:00.000-08:00

and some good news.

No minor surgery for me. Yay.

I don't think I'll put myself back in the mix for tomorrow, though...a sleepy ref is not a good ref. And I'm behind on the day job. And I need an oil change. So I'll go to the oil-change place, go on a day-job marathon, and then go to sleep.

The better news is that my earlier concerns about the sudden dearth of varsity assignments was unfounded. I've just picked up a couple more girls' JV/Varsity doubleheaders for January. So that's good.

I'm a little concerned because one of them is with a partner who, while a good guy, is awfully green, young, and (I think) not yet ready. Maybe he's improved a lot in a year...I'm not sure. But I'm ready to step up and be more of a leader if need be.

Game Log 12/9/2008: One big mistake, generally pooped

2008-12-09T22:43:00.000-08:00

The first call of my two-not-too-good-teams Varsity game tonight was not a good one.

I'm U1, chopping in the clock on the jump ball. I say to myself what I've said to myself for every jump ball in my career: "If White wins, I run right. White is right. White is right."

I'll have to adjust that, because Green and White jumpers went up, rattled the ball around, and Green caught the jump ball.

My mind just said "Oh! Green got it...run left!"

So I did.

None of the three of us tooted our whistles for a jumper catching the jump ball.

Yeesh! That's pretty bad, but it honestly didn't even occur to me that that had happened until White's coach asked me a polite question at the first whistle. Bizarre. I paused, thought, and then said "Coach, I flat-out missed it." That ended it. U2 certainly could have had it, but he's new to varsity and was rather nervous. R could have had it, but by the time he put the whistle in his mouth, I guess he'd decided it was too late. It's a crew mistake, but I'm taking much of the responsibility. Dammit, I know the rule, so why'd I manage to completely not have it register in my head that it had happened?

Long games tonight, both JV and Varsity, and far from home, so I'm a little tired. I'm short sleep and battling a minor medical issue that I'll have taken care of with minor surgery tomorrow. But mostly, I just noticed my mind wandering. I felt good about the rest of the JV game--the calls were just fine. But I sort of felt sleepy.

That carried over into the Varsity game. There were eleven fouls called in the first quarter, nine on Green. Somehow, I whistled NONE of them. I got my first foul in the second quarter (a good off-ball moving screen). Green was up 14 at half, so I told myself to stay focused and ref it a play at a time from there.

But White came back. The game came down to the final minutes, much to my surprise.

With three minutes left, R called us over and said "OK, this is close. It needs our full attention and effort. I'm going to tell the coaches to stay in their boxes, and if they leave, it'll be a T."

Thirty seconds later: T on Green. I respect him for calling it, but I'm not sure that 2 minutes left in a close game is the time to do it. (R said as much after the game, although he believed--correctly--that Green was gaining an advantage by being out of the box. Still...)

R also warned us about White's coach, who he said was a former ref who had left the association under controversial circumstances and who liked to ride refs and tell them what to do. I guess I've developed a thicker skin this year, because none of what he did (which honestly wasn't much) bugged me. I did show him my palm with two minutes to play, simply because I didn't like him trying to get in my ear on a free throw then. I said "Coach, there's two minutes left. I don't want to hear you anymore. You can do two minutes." It worked.

One of the reasons it was close was that Green's best player fouled out. It happened early in the fourth, right after I'd gotten together with my partners, saying "Guys, 45 Green has four fouls. Just so you know." I was T when 45 drove baseline and collided with a defender (who, respectfully, I didn't think was there yet). Rookie partner called it a PC foul as Lead. It was more his call than mine, since the drive was baseline--so even if I had the block call, it's a good thing I didn't whistle it...we'd have blarged for sure. Not surprisingly, the Green coach was displeased. (He'd be more displeased when he got the T later.)

Anyway, I just wasn't quite with it tonight. Game was fine, and my calls were fine...no huge "Oh my GOD" moments. But I never quite tooted the whistle like my partners did tonight, and my brain wasn't as fast as I'd like it.

I now have a week off due to work commitments and the aforementioned minor surgery. I think it's probably a good thing. The day job is kicking my ass right now, so a little break from reffing likely will be good for all aspects of my life.

THINGS I DID WELL: Composure late in close game, coach communication

THINGS TO WORK ON: R said I only signal violations with my right hand. I hadn't noticed, but I think he's correct. I may need to focus on that...maybe call my next freshman girls' game entirely left-handed just to prove to myself that I can. Also, get my brain in the stinking game. Also, change my jump-ball mantra to "White is right, and watch for the weird. White is right, and watch for the weird...."

NEXT UP: Thursday: Mega-small religious school vs. mega-small rural school. Two varsity games; the latter will be my first-ever boys' varsity game.

Game Log 12/8/2008: No problem

2008-12-08T22:02:00.000-08:00

This JV/Varsity doubleheader was so calm and smooth that I literally barely remember any of it. The JV game was a 15-pointer, the Varsity game far less close. JV went just hunky-dory. I started to notice my legs getting fatigued late in the game...just tired muscles that didn't want to move when I told them to move. But I hung in there.

I must have gotten a second wind during the Varsity game because I could move again sometime in the second half. I looked up at the clock during the fourth quarter and kept saying to myself: "Seven more minutes of great reffing. Move your ass and stay alert." "Six more minutes of great reffing. Move your ass and stay alert." The losing team had one particular game-messer-upper (although we use a more colorful word than "messer") that kept pushing. I got her on a couple, and she got better. If anything, I started focusing to much on her and may have missed other stuff, but it was clear that the game called for her to get special attention. I also talked a lot to the post players, saying things like "Knock it off!" and even stepping onto the court for a stern "Stop it!" during dead balls. I think it worked better not to keep tooting the whistle for this game, which was approaching a 40-point blowout. Talking was better than whistling.

Partner thought I didn't do well on a shooting call. Hand got ball, but I thought all of the forearm also got all of the forearm. The bad news was that everyone in the joint heard leather. At halftime, partner asked me what I saw, and I told him. He then said "That's not what I saw..." But in the second half, I was lead and he was C and he called a similar call...but he couldn't have seen it since he was looking through the player's back. I had a clean block. Turnabout.

THINGS I DID WELL: Busted butt through to second wind, call selection was fine (only one or two I'd like back), eye contact.

THINGS TO WORK ON: Needed a second wind, might have overused talking technique

NEXT UP: Smallish school girls JV/Varsity tomorrow.

Game Log 12/5/2008: Sloppy doubleheader

2008-12-05T22:21:00.001-08:00

Did a JV/Varsity girls doubleheader tonight with one of the absolute best officials in our association and a guy who's a little green. (It's kinda cool that I'm not the green one on the crew anymore.) Both games were sloppily played, but we were pretty spot on.

The JV game was awful--a blowout of immense proportions. The losing team didn't score in the second half, didn't score in double digits for the game, and wound up losing by 60. Not much to do in this one except try to stay in shape from the many, many turnovers. Can't remember a call in this one. Aggressive girls for the winning team went after the ball by mistake once in the fourth quarter, and when the ball went out of bounds, the coach said, quite forcefully, "Girls, get back! They got the ball, get back!" I thanked him for that.

The Varsity game was considerably closer. I won't say it was good, but it required some concentration because it was close late. My partner had a player control foul against White that was terribly unpopular with about 3 minutes left in a close game. A trip or two down the floor later, I was in the coach's hip pocket as C. A player started a drive. A defender for Blue stepped in right at the free throw line. Secondary defender...that's mine all the way. Collision. Player control.

Coach came absolutely unglued.

I said two things to him: "She was there, coach," and "That's enough, coach." But he was so pissed off from partner's call that he was quite demonstrative. No T necessary, though, for three reasons: 1. I was able to run down the floor on the rotation to get away from him. 2. It was the first I'd heard from him all night. 3. It was a tie game with two minutes left.

Experienced partner said that he was ready to T the coach up from behind me. I'm glad he didn't. He also said that I comported myself very well. I find it easy to comport myself very well when I'm 100% sure my call is right. So I'm pleased with how that went down.

The other coach became a little bit annoyed with me later in the game. His team slipped behind, and was in a situation where a strategic foul made sense. My instinct is to call one quick so it doesn't grow up into an intentional two-shots-and-the-ball foul. I called the first (light) contact. Coach called me over, and quite politely said this: "Could you not anticipate the foul? We're not planning to foul yet."

Fair enough.

Then, with 6 seconds left in a 4-point game, the same team did want to foul. The kid for the winning team caught the ball, and her defender put both forearms on her and pushed forward. It wasn't too hard, but it was enough to knock the kid back a good step. No effort to play the ball.

Intentional foul.

Yeah, I guess I could have called it a common foul, but the rulebook is on my side on this one. It's not the kind of thing where it was going to result in a fight or anything (though experienced partner said he thought the offensive player was a little upset). But if it was borderline, I'll go with the book rather than with "this is the way people usually call it."

Losing coach wasn't happy. After I explained it, all he said was "You haven't handled the end of the game well." I respectfully disagree. But the guy wasn't too bad.

So it's not a bad start.

THINGS I DID WELL: We did fashion police crap before both games, I comported myself well under pressure, made the right, gutsy calls late.

THINGS TO WORK ON: My legs felt like they were in molasses. I blew some weird switches, and went to bizarre places on free throws. I'll look forward to the day when three-man is my norm again.

NEXT UP: Monday. Another girls' JV/Varsity doubleheader.

Game Log 12/4/2008: Good start

2008-12-04T20:43:00.001-08:00

Smooth freshman boys' game tonight between two local powerhouses (the varsity game featured extremely good refs and a big crowd). Partnered with a relative newbie, but the game was pretty smooth.

First quarter featured only a few fouls. None at all for four or five minutes, then about four called by me while my partner had none. (He got one in just before the buzzer.)

Things were uneventful...White pulling away from Green, up by about 15 at halftime. The White coach was a chirper, yakking all night long. About 80% of it was at players, and about 20% was at us, but about 100% went in one ear and out the other. I honestly had no idea what he was saying. It was simply the soundtrack. Never out of control, but never quiet either.

I then called a foul with about a minute left in the third. Shooting foul against Green. As I reported the foul, the Green coach, who had said nothing all night long, said this:

"You guys call the game! You guys call the game!"

I was terribly confused. I figured maybe he was talking to his players...some weird motivational thing...couldn't figure it out. So I walked away.

At the end of the third quarter, I figured out what it meant. He came out and was barking at my partner, claiming that we were letting the White coach's commentary influence our calls. We absolutely were NOT. At least I know that I was not. I didn't even know the guy was saying anything when I made literally any call in the first three quarters.

But the human mind, when it believes there is a pattern somewhere, will find evidence of it whether the pattern exists or not. I must find a psychological study which exemplifies that, because it's sure as hell true of spectators and officials. It was also true of some unknown guy--I think he was somehow school related and not a parent--who started chirping at me at that point. "Don't let that guy call the game for you!" He earned a Big Ignore, for being an uninvolved man and a very, very poor mind-reader.

As the guy walked away from my partner--just as I was arriving--he exited saying "That's bullsh..." I didn't hear the "it." He dropped his voice, I think, and turned away at the same time. So no T for him. Not sure my partner would have called it even with the added "it." I sure would have, but I heard "bullsh," and "bullsh" is not a T in my book, especially when I'm barely arriving on the scene and the word is thrown at my partner.

Anyway, my mind started playing tricks a little bit from there. I didn't want to call anything that the coach was saying. For the first time, I started hearing it, and I may have passed on a call or two because I heard him yammering about something. Nothing major, but it was in my head.

Then, a White player fouled out. "That's five, coach," I said to the coach. "That's five," I said to the player. I turned to the table. "Start the time, and give me a buzzer in five seconds."

"What?"

"Buzzer in five seconds, please."

I count to six. "Hit the horn, please."

Scoreboard guy didn't know why, but he did.

"Coach, I need a sub."

"Why? I get 60 seconds."

"Nope you get 20."

And the mind-reader behind the bench--mind you, on the opposite team--agreed with the dude. "It's 60."

It has NEVER been 60 in my career! I don't even think it's 60 in the NBA, although I avoid knowing too much about NBA rules (they screw me up). It was 30 until last year, when it was reduced to 20.

I informed both it was 20.

I HATE that combination of incorrect and confident!

Anyway, about a minute later, White coach was chiriping about 3 seconds calls, even though shots were going up. This guy REALLY didn't know the rules! So I finally figured out the solution, and showed him my palm, saying "That's enough." I heard no more from him, and that ended the problem.

In a way, I should have done that earlier, but earlier, he hadn't been bugging me! He was only bugging me once the Green coach started incorrectly bitching that I was being swayed...and it was bugging me only because Green coach had brought the whole thing up. So, on the one hand, I may have rewarded Green's bitching be showing my palm to the White coach. But on the other hand, it solved multiple problems for me late in a 30-point blowout, so I can live with that.

So, while I was annoyed at rule-ignorant coaches who believed they knew what I was thinking, I still say the game went pretty well. There's very little I'd like back, and I can live with that.

THINGS I DID WELL: Handled angry coaches well, mechanics felt good, in position OK.
THINGS TO WORK ON: The pause between whistle and speaking was not there. I'm still saying stupid stuff.
NEXT UP: Good girls' varsity/JV doubleheader tomorrow.

And...we're on in three, two...

2008-12-03T21:18:00.001-08:00

I lead off tomorrow. Freshman boys. Then girls' varsity/JV doubleheaders on Friday and Monday.

A quick review of my goals for this year:

1. SLOW THE HELL DOWN.

My goal: There will always be discernible silence between the whistle and the call. A good way to do that might be to keep the whistle in my mouth. I'll put this in the foreground for camp.

Glad this is here, because my goal is always to get the whistle out of my mouth and start barking. No more. Discernible silence. That's a nice, measurable goal.

2. PHYSICAL CONDITIONING.

It's quite possible that my tendinitis comes in part from my miscalculation of more-or-less not working out for the first 37 years of my life. And my suspect running style probably didn't help my posterior tibialis tendon any. So, as soon as I get this damn boot off, I will get a personal trainer. I will actually run a little bit (not a lot...let's get real). I will develop some of those...whattayacallem...muscle groups. I will buy really good ref shoes. I'll put insoles in them to protect my ankles and knees. I will be in physical shape so that I, rather than a doctor, ends my season.

The national economy has prevented me from getting a personal trainer. And while I walked a good deal this offseason, I haven't run hardly at all until recently. I hope I can keep up with the kiddoes, especially since this looks to be a mix of (2-person) freshman games and (3-person) JV/Varsity games. I'll do ankle exercises especially. I did manage to buy the really good shoes, so that ought to make a significant difference right there.

3. RULES KNOWLEDGE.

I always thought I was solid on the rules, but I guess I wasn't. I'll hit the books this summer. I'll have it cold...even the damn fashion rules. I want to become The Rules Guy in the association...the guy people go to to ask stuff.

I think I'm better in the places where I used to be weak, which is to say Fashion Police and Which Ts Are Direct, Indirect, And All That. Before my first boys' game, I'll memorize the basket interference and goaltending rules.

Wish me luck! Game logs start tomorrow night.

Workout challenge

2008-11-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

I have come to the end of my annual broken promise of working out over the summer. I did a few good long walks in town over the summer, but haven't done jack since school started in August. Today, I got my butt down to the gym and onto the treadmill.

It actually went better than I thought...better enough that tomorrow I shall TiVo the late NFL game and only allow myself to watch it after logging 2.5 miles on the road. It ain't much, but I figure it's enough to duplicate a game. Well, at least a 3-person game.

While on the treadmill at the gym, I try to watch sports and to make myself see the game closely...essentially calling the game. I'm not a football official, but I can keep an eye on the ball, rule on first downs, etc.

Then I decided to keep an eye on commercials every bit as closely.

Have you ever tried to call a Hooters commercial?

Scheduling thoughts...hmm.

2008-11-22T13:08:00.000-08:00

The first three games assigned to me out of the shoot--bam, bam, bam!--were girls' JV/Varsity doubleheaders. I was quite happy about that...it appeared that they'd noticed I was up for the challenge, at least on the girls' side.

Since then, four games have appeared. Three were freshman, one was JV.

I accepted everything, of course, since I don't want to be known as the guy who turns back games he thinks are beneath him. But my original assessment--the Sally Field assessment of "You like me, you really like me"--may have been in error. Maybe I just got my availability in sooner.

We'll know soon enough, I guess, as other games come down the pike.

Thank you, Shane Victorino.

2008-10-25T23:23:00.000-07:00

Fox Sports has an established pattern (since 2005 if not before) of inordinately focusing on missed calls as a part of their postseason coverage. Maybe focus groups like that...I don't know. Tonight they were at it again. They repeatedly showed zoomed-in close-ups that appeared to show first base umpire Tom Hallion's safe call on Jamie Moyer's diving shovel into Ryan Howard's bare hand was incorrect. With a freeze-frame, one could see that Howard squeezed his hand around the ball when batter-runner Carl Crawford's foot was about four inches above the bag. Thanks to freeze-frame and zooming, we saw that he was actually out by about a tenth of a second.

Fox, of course, chose to show the play about a bazillion times.

Later, however, they showed a conversation between Phillies outfielders during a pitching change. Shane Victorino said something like this:

"There's a lot going on. He has to look over at the bare hand when [Howard's] glove is out like this..."

Nice perspective. Now, if a player for the team on the short end of a missed bang-bang call can mention how immensely close the play was, why can't Joe Buck and Tim McCarver? It seems to me that the sportscasters are paid for at least some measure of distance, perspective, and equanimity...but on umpiring issues, Fox has less of all three of those than at least one player who have been working all year for this before getting a bad break.

Back where I belong.

2008-10-25T12:01:00.001-07:00

First two assignments came in today. Both are big-school girls JV/Varsity doubleheaders.

I guess they liked me at camp.

First goal: get my butt in shape. I've got a cold this minute, but once it's gone, I'm gonna haul my sorry butt out for a run or two. Fortunately, the season starts late 'round these parts.

Next goal: playoffs. Within 2-3 years.

Available for 37 days

2008-10-21T21:54:00.000-07:00

This year, I just laid out my availability for the whole season at once. 37 days from the day after Thanksgiving to about Presidents' Day. Averages about 3 per week, which feels right.

--I'd better get my ankle in shape. I do NOT want to go here again. I'm in better shape than I was a year ago at this time, but not by much.

--The whole season could end abruptly again, however. My wife is due to have our first baby in February. And even if I have a big varsity game or playoff assignments (neither likely just yet...give it another year or two), I'll shut down early for that!

The wisdom or foolhardiness of keeping an officiating blog

2008-10-21T20:39:00.000-07:00

This month's Referee Magazine has a piece on officiating conversations on the web. It includes one key reminder--for us to remember that every call we make now, from the smallest freshman game all the way up--has a chance of being recorded on a cell phone and making it onto YouTube. I suspect that the accompanying commentary will not likely be kind. Not much that can be done about that.

Of more interest to me is a section on blogs by officials about their games.

Here's part of what they said:

Amateur umpires have used blogs as well, sometimes to relate their experiences on the field or court. One example was cited by Mark Uyl, one of the session's panelists and the assistant director of the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA).

"We have an official who started an official blog," he said. "The way it was first described to us was the official could work a game on Friday night, go to his computer Saturday morning and kind of give a detailed account of the game. That really posed a dilemma to us because we have a policy that officials won't comment to the media on specific game circumstances, and essentially we had an official who was eliminating the middleman."

As a result of these incidents, the MHSAA created a policy. Officials could talk online about officiating in general, but not specific games, players, or plays.

In other words, this blog would violate MHSAA policy. If I'm in Michigan, I'm in danger of some form of sanction.

The article continues. NCAA National Coordinator of Softball Officials Kathy Strahm says that officials who have blogs should "exercise caution," and Uyl eventually says that "our official who writes the blog, I respect the fact that whatever he writes about, he puts his name to."

I think I exercise that "extreme caution"...but through anonymity. I made the choice immediately upon starting this blog that I would not use my name, the names of any schools, of any coaches, partners, cities, or states. The reasons for this were simple: I want to provide a honest self-critique and to write accurate depictions of game situations. I also decided that I would never, ever, ever badmouth a partner here. (Or rather, that I'd save up all the worst partner moments and combine them into one post.) I don't think I've ever said anything I'd be embarrassed by here. A quick search reveals I've called a coach a jerk once. I've dropped the word "idiot" on three fans at my games (one of whom was running the scoreboard), as well as a few fans of the pros and sportscasters (most notably Joe Theismann). But nothing heavier than that. On the whole, in spite of my anonymity, I'm both civil and careful.

The primary reason I write my game logs on this blog is for self-critique. I am my primary reader. I want to be able to keep track of what I'm doing well and what I need to work on. With three seasons of game logs here, I can actually look back at past games (and occasionally do) in order to assess my strengths and improve my weaknesses.

The secondary reason I keep this blog is because I have smart refs who check it out occasionally and give me input. Whether it's my buddy Young Guy or a college ref like MassRef (Mass, next time I'm in your neck of the woods, I SO owe you a beverage), it's simply awesome to get another's view on a tough call or game or congratulations on a good call or game. They make me better. They also force me to provide accurate, thoughtful, honest appraisals of every game.

To use some specific examples, when I have a terrible game like this one, or am questioning a call I made like this one, anonymity provides me the opportunity to write down events as honestly as possible to get feedback...both from later versions of myself and from smart refs who read this. I'm the kind of guy who does most of my thinking aloud, and once I'm done chatting with partners and ref friends, I continue talking here on the blog. Posting with my name would make me loath to present the warts-and-all analysis of my work that I want, both from myself and from the three or four people who read this.

And to be honest, I've been using this as a semi-public officiating journal for so long that it's become a huge part of my ongoing improvement. After the game (and, occasionally, alas, during) I will frame the weird situation in my brain by saying, "How am I going to describe this on my blog? What's the situation? What's the necessary background?" That kind of reflection is, in some ways, more valuable than either the post or the responses. It's like the person who starts writing a letter to an advice columnist, but in the process of thinking out the problem to write about it, solves the problem.

Being anonymous keeps me honest. Having an audience keeps me accountable.

So, while the Referee article seems to say that a blog like this one can cause only harm and no good, I have to disagree. I'm a better official because of the three seasons I've posted my every game here. I will continue to write, and I'll continue to maintain anonymity. I will not post anything here I'd be embarrassed to see my name next to, but I'll keep anonymous so I can give honest self-appraisals without worrying about idiot fans (there's that word again) or angry coaches using my words against me. It is to my advantage that my readership is so small, since my Google ratings are low, and the odds I'll have anyone surf in to find me talking about a game that they themselves have heard about are very small. Not zero, but quite small.

Let the fourth blogged season commence! (5 weeks or so to tip-off, unless I get some warm-up games.)

I would never

2008-09-19T15:34:00.000-07:00

email an apology people who had emailed me hate mail after a blown call. (And, in all seriousness, that could happen to any of us at any level.)

I can't believe that Hochuli did just that. I can't decide whether it makes him incredibly caring or nuts. Maybe both.

How to handle a blown call

2008-09-14T19:18:00.000-07:00

No huge conspiracy theorists. No yelling about an "officiating crisis." Just legitimate criticism of a great ref who blew a big call.

Ed Hochuli is a stud. He'll always be a stud. But he missed a big one today, I'm afraid, calling what should have been a fumble by Denver quarterback Jay Cutler an incomplete pass. Because he blew his whistle and ended the play by calling the pass incomplete, all a replay review could do was give Denver the ball back a few yards further back. You can't unring a bell, you can't unsay a word, and you can't unblow a whistle.

I girded up my loins for a huge backlash.

Actually, what I've seen hasn't been that bad.

Here's Norv Turner's quote from this article:

"On the last play it was clearly a fumble, clear to everyone on our sideline and I'm sure to the fans. Ed said he blew it, and that is not to me acceptable."

Not a damn thing wrong with any of this. I'd bet a chunk of my next paycheck that Hochuli would agree with every word of it.

Cris Collinsworth, at halftime of the night game, was similar. He pointed out the mistake, said that Hochuli is one of the best officials in the NFL, and pointed out how unfortunate the error was, particularly to the Chargers.

No name-calling. No misunderstanding of a rule. No Chicken Little breathless crap.

Just saying "He's a good official, and he blew it, and it's bad that he blew it."

I hope this reasonableness lasts.

(I doubt it will.)

All the latest in Olympic Women's Handball Officiating Coverage!

2008-08-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

I love team handball--and I watch as much as I can every 4 years.

In yesterday's women's semifinal between Norway and South Korea had an incredibly dramatic--and controversial--end.

South Korea scored a goal with 5 seconds left on the clock to tie the score at 28 and probably force overtime. Incredibly, in the 5 seconds after the goal (the clock doesn't stop in handball), Norway retrieved the ball, hucked it to halfcourt, put it i play, passed to Gro Hammerseng (their star), and Hammerseng put it into the net just as time expired.

Did the ball cross the line before or after time expired? TiVo was inconclusive. I paused it just as the clock indicated the game ended, and the ball appeared to be either just barely on or just barely over the line. It was hellaciously close. The officials, from Spain, consulted with the sideline officials and then allowed the goal.

Tough, close judgment call.

The Koreans responded in a manner that's not exactly consistent with Olympic ideals. This article details that.

First, they staged a sit-in for 20 minutes after the game. As they did that, coach Lim Young-Chui argued with sideline officials...for a half hour, as if that would change anything. Then, they lodged a protest with handball's international governing body. It failed...the international body stated that the officials' decision was "a factual decision." South Korea is now appealing the ruling to a higher-up handball authority. It, too, will surely fail.

What bugs me here, other than the failure to gracefully accept a judgment call and thereby sullying an incredible game (and yes, I watched the whole thing), is that Lim says that South Korean TV shows that the ball crossed the line two seconds after the final buzzer. That ridiculous statement pretty well shoots any credibility that he or the Koreans have. Two seconds? Maybe two hundredths of a second--if that--but not two seconds. That's the sound of an ungraceful, sad loser.

I feel for the Korean team. But Norway's last attack was tremendous, and the call so close--not even discernible on TiVo--that I can live with whichever decision the officials make.

(I'm afraid the above photo is the best I can find right now. Better ones may shake loose soon.)

Minor League Brawl: League President overturns ejections

2008-07-25T18:02:00.001-07:00

If you haven't seen the chilling video of the Dayton Dragons/Peoria Chiefs brawl from last night, it's here. It's damn ugly. Julio Castillo, in my view, should not be able to play pro baseball again without a psychological evaluation. Seriously. I've been in a lot of minor league ballparks, and I like to sit behind the dugout. I don't think I should be dodging fastballs. Nor should any of his intended targets inside the dugout.

I haven't seen the game, so I'm going to set aside the in-game controversies involving the umpires (should they have warned, could they have prevented, etc.). It's what happened during the hourlong delay that interests me.

The umpires, Tyler Wilson and Joey Amaral, ejected 15 players and 2 coaches. (Based on the video, that's not at all surprising.) But the Reds and Cubs (parent organizations for the Dragons and Chiefs, respectively) appealed the ejections to Midwest League President George Spelius.

The grounds for the appeal?

They didn't want their pitchers to have to play the outfield that night.

Boo-freaking-hoo.

Spelius upheld the appeal and overturned the ejections (except for Castillo). I can see it from his point of view; he needs to keep the major league bosses happy.

However, I wish he'd shown some fortitude and backed his umpires...made the teams play with whatever remaining players they had, or else forfeit.

An ejection is an ejection, and overturning Wilson and Amaral as they doled out discipline on an incredibly difficult (to say the least) situation isn't the way to solve it.

The pitchers will survive one game in the outfield. If that makes life difficult for the Reds and Cubs, they need to take that up with their players who participated in such a horrifying melee, not with the umpires who rightly tossed them.

To allow them all to play that night reveals horribly misplaced priorities...player development over player (and fan, and coach, and umpire) safety. Nobody who is ejected for brawling should get to play that night, whether there's an appeal to the league President, U.S. President, or Pope. Sort it out later if you must, but don't overturn an umpire's ejections, especially when they are so obviously warranted.

I'm not mad. I'm disappointed.

2008-07-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

I've grown to expect the "Top Ten Worst Calls of All Time" features on ESPN and Fox Sports.

But the NFL Network debuted a piece on the "Top 10 Most Controversial Calls" last week. I was so baffled that I Tivoed it. Just watched it now.

There are some great calls on the list (Immaculate Reception has been proven correct by physics professors, as has the Music City Miracle) and one or two misses that even the NFL admits were wrong. I thought maybe, since the NFL wouldn't want to sell its officials down the river, that they might explain "This one was proven right" or even "This one is a subjective call; here's what the official saw and some reasons people might disagree" along with the occasional "We blew that one."

Mike Pereira was on the show, so this was entirely possible. Jerry Markbreit even explained his perspective on the 1978 "Holy Roller" play (he said, from his angle, he couldn't rule whether Stabler threw the ball forward on purpose).

But those moments were rare exceptions. For reasons I do not at all understand, the NFL actually undercut their own officials by providing 60 minutes of airtime to people bitching about their old wounds, frequently without any real explanations about a rule. And since they don't let their officials talk to the media without rarely-granted permission, no active refs could talk about their perspectives on these calls.

If I were an NFL ref, I'd be fuming that the NFL willingly made their own look bad. They didn't focus on what made these calls controversial, or use these calls to educate fans just a little bit about rules or about officiating.

I expect anti-ref propaganda from sports networks--but not from an arm of the league itself.

I'm not an NBA referee...

2008-07-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

But if I were, I might be concerned that my new supervisor has no officiating experience.

Sure, the status quo needed change. I like that the reffing assignments, scheduling, and evaluation are now separate from the NBA. And, from his resume anyway, the new guy seems like a straight-arrow decent guy.

But couldn't they have gotten a respected college guy or college assignor?

I just wrote this to ESPN's ombudsman.

2008-06-14T17:30:00.000-07:00

I've been a big fan of ESPN's ombudsman, Le Anne Schreiber, for some time. Her criticisms of ESPN--and her compliments of it--are reasoned, careful, and on the money.

I therefore hope she reads this letter I just wrote to her. And if she doesn't...well, I hope you'll read it.

***

Ms. Schreiber,

I'm writing about ESPN's coverage of Tim Donaghy and recent allegations of game-fixing in the NBA. I'm bothered by the way that ESPN has helped intensify the story.

"Like it or not, the public perception is that there's a problem," ESPN will report, "so the league needs to do something to change that perception."

I would argue that ESPN and other sports media are helping to create that perception--and therefore the problem.

I've heard Mike and Mike and Colin Cowherd address conspiracy theories on the radio. I've seen Bob Ley devote a good chunk of his Outside the Lines show to this unbacked allegation. I've read Marc Stein saying that "it's getting harder to find folks who don't believe" in a conspiracy. I've read J.J. Adande saying that "the most-discussed game to come out of these 2008 Finals is Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference finals." (Apparently Adande has been watching and listening to ESPN and reading ESPN.com like I have.)

The problem is that, while ESPN seldom points out how baseless and unbacked Donaghy's accusations are, they're still dusting off tapes of the 2002 playoff game, thereby advancing the possibility that the outcome was rigged. Then, since fans will talk about these incendiary accusations at the water cooler, ESPN can justify writing a second story about how much fans are talking about "the officiating problem." The problem, of course, is that ESPN has played a leading role in encouraging those negative perceptions of officiating by advancing Donaghy's accusations as as anything other than unproven.

They've even added the incendiary "-gate" suffix to sex up the story a bit: "Refgate."

It feels to me that, even if ESPN didn't light the match, they've fed the flames of the inferno they now are reporting on. It's not dissimilar from your excellent description of the breathless coverage of another -gate: Spygate. There's no evidence of wrongdoing...merely one man's allegation. Nevertheless, every branch of ESPN has gone bonkers reporting about negative perceptions that they themselves have helped to create. If anyone has said "Wait a minute. Donaghy is asking us to believe that David Stern would give up his cushy lifestyle and risk the entire future of the league just to get to a game 7 in one series," or shown how Donaghy's story has the officials involved risking their reputations and their six-figure incomes at literally no gain to themselves--well, if anyone pointed this out, it was drowned out by the passionate shouts of "Refgate!"

When ESPN overreports on unbacked allegations, then reports on how the public has a perception that there's an officiating problem, then ESPN has helped to create the perception problem they're reporting on. As a high school official, that perception eventually trickles down to me, so I have a pretty severe problem with ESPN's choices.

I hope I'm not alone in noticing this problem: I hope you do as well.

The inside story of the 2002 NBA CONSPIRACY!!!!!

2008-06-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

Many of my fellow officials view Tim Donaghy's recent accusations that playoff games in 2002 and 2005 were rigged by officials at the behest of the NBA to be a try-something, try-anything fiction thrown out by a man trying to reduce a potentially long prison sentence. I'll admit it certainly looks like that.

But it turns out it's all true.

I have obtained a copy of the actual conversation between David Stern and the men Donaghy's lawyers call "Referee A" and "Referee F." It was taped on a minicassette player hidden in a $5.00 bottle of water at a suite in the Downtown L.A. Hilton on May 30, 2002.

The tape was delivered here to Illegal Screen Headquarters due to my massive reach in the officiating news community. Incredibly, the conversation proves that every single improbable line of thought actually happened.

The transcript follows.

STERN: Thanks, fellas, for coming here. Sorry I'm late. I was exfoliating.

OFFICIAL A: I so understand.

OFFICIAL F: You look lovely.

STERN: Thanks, F.

OFFICIAL F: Why are you calling me "F"?

STERN: It's a future codename.

OFFICIAL F: Okay, Zsa Zsa.

STERN: Anyway, you probably know why you're here. I want to encourage each of you to do absolutely everything you can to get the Kings to lose tomorrow. Leave no stone unturned, no Kings foul uncalled, no King unfouled. It's hugely important for us to have the Lakers win tomorrow.

OFFICIAL A: I don't know about this, Commish...

OFFICIAL F: Yeah! I can't let that happen.

OFFICIAL A: Seriously. I spent years as a state trooper, risking my life to clean up New Jersey from mob influence. I gave up three years of my life to get some horrible, dangerous people off the street to help out the regular guys they extorted, threatened, and killed. Nothing pisses me off more than something crooked. How can you think I'll be on board?

OFFICIAL F: Yeah. Screw you, commish. I busted my ass in junior high ball, high school ball, got lucky and got noticed for college and D-I ball, and hauled myself around podunk towns doing CBA ball on a crappy per-diem hoping I'd get noticed. I did, and here I am at the top of my profession--all because I got a hard-earned reputation for being fair. And as a ref, my reputation is all I've got.

STERN: But wait. This is important.

OFFICIAL A: Important enough for us to piss away our consciences and reputations?

STERN: Yeah.

OFFICIAL F: What's at stake?

STERN: We have to have a game 7 back in Sacramento.

OFFICIAL A: Oh. Well, that makes it all better then. Count me in. I'm happy to give up everything I stand for for that.

OFFICIAL F: Wait, Mr. Stern--I mean Zsa Zsa. I'm not so sure.

STERN: No! It's hugely important to our bottom lines for there to be a Game 7. I know we've had massive, unprecedented international expansion. This summer, we'll get that tall Chinese fella here and make money like there's no tomorrow. We've never been more popular. Truffle?

OFFICIAL A: Huh?

STERN: Never mind. Fish wrapped in hundred-dollar bill?

OFFICIAL F: That's unsanitary.

STERN: Whatever. But my point is, we really need this series--all series, in fact--to go to a Game Seven. And we'll do whatever it takes to make that happen. Plus, I want to get my hair done in Sacramento. I can't find anyone good in New York or L.A..

OFFICIAL A: But commish, no other series this whole playoffs have gone to seven games.

OFFICIAL F: Yeah, and last year less than half did.

STERN: Really? Geez. I haven't been watching much basketball. I'm hooked on The Osbournes. Well, we'll start now. Besides, I only want large-market teams in the finals. Every year! That's why I've rigged the league to favor large markets.

OFFICIAL A: Like New Jersey? They look like they're about to go.

STERN: New-wha?

OFFICIAL F: Or Utah, twice? Or Portland? Indiana? San Antonio? Orlando? One of them has been in the Finals 7 of the last 10 years.

STERN: What are you, a damn almanac? Look. Indiana is the captial of basketball. Utah needs something to do. San Antonio has that big fella. Orlando had that other big guy. And Portland...well, I love New England. So they're all big markets, at least in my heart. So I made exceptions. For all of them.

OFFICIAL A: That makes sense. I'm totally sold on your plan! Okay, I understand how desperate the NBA is for a Game 7, and I get our inherent bias towards large-market teams, as well as the exceptions we let slide through nearly every year, including this one. So I'm willing to abandon everything I've ever known to do what you want.

OFFICIAL F: I'm not so sure, sir. What about the risks?

STERN: Risks?

OFFICIAL F: Risks. We're a multi-billion dollar business. You're filthy rich, and while I'm not making Commish money, I'm making six figures to chase these guys around...and the first number is not a one. I'm not sure I want to lose that. Plus, we can go to the slammer. Right, A?

OFFICIAL A: Damn right. Racketeering, fraud, all that.

OFFICIAL F: Yeah. And I don't think I'd do well in prison.

STERN: I probably would do great.

OFFICIAL F: Um...yeah. Still, I understand how important it is to throw all this away and risk our lives, livelihoods, the trust of millions of people, and the entire league, just so everyone can go back to Sacramento for one more game after tonight. Believe me, that's absolutely crystal clear, but I want to be assured that we won't be caught.

STERN: Of course! It will be a secret.

OFFICIAL A: You mean just us three, plus our partner tomorrow night?

STERN: Don't tell your partner.

OFFICIAL F: Why not?

STERN: Just don't. He's not in on the plan. He's not a "company man."

OFFICIAL A: How do I know we won't tell beyond this room?

STERN: We'll pinkie swear!

ALL TOGETHER: Cross me heart, hope to die, stick a needle in the eye.

STERN: Oh, except one more thing.

OFFICIAL F: What?

STERN: We need to be sure Tim Donaghy knows.

OFFICIAL A: No fair! We pinkie swore!

STERN: No. He just needs to know. So let's tell him.

OFFICIAL F: Okay. I'll call him. He's on his cellphone, probably in Atlantic City.

See how simple it all is?

Game Log 6/7/2008: Easy morning

2008-06-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

Two JV girls games. I was disappointed, to be honest--I wanted to work on my positioning as C, so the two-person mechanics were a bit of a let-down. Still, the games gave me a opportunity to work on my other big issues du jour: posture and reducing verbiage. Each games were pretty smooth and pretty quick (20-minute running clock). The second game had a lot of post pushing, and I got a chance to call some off-ball stuff (forearm push in the backs do NOT happen in my games, dammit!). But this one was mostly about me not saying stupid things after blowing my whistle, and I didn't. Hooray me.

Of course, I forgot the posture stuff. I'm pretty sure I was still leaning over and probably squinting. I'll focus on that tomorrow.

Best news of all: I am having literally zero physical aftermath from these games. My feet and knees have recovered, I think. I totally must keep on my feet this summer. It's something I pretty well need to do for my health anyway...the reffing is provides an excuse to do it.

THINGS I DID WELL: Kept an eye on partner to release/get ball, didn't use excess verbiage, had good off-ball calls.

THINGS TO WORK ON: Posture probably wasn't good. Wandered outside my area once to get a double-dribble...why was I watching there?

NEXT UP: Another game, probably JV again, tomorrow.

Camp Log Day Two

2008-06-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

Best camp I've ever been to. I only did two halves today. Three were originally scheduled, but I was bumped from the third because they wanted to see another kid get his shot in a varsity game. I take that as a good sign...being told they've "seen enough" after mostly-complimentary input means I'll probably get a decent schedule this year.

The other game was followed by some really intense video breakdown. The clinician stood with the three of us and would regularly pause the tape, saying things like "Okay...Lead needs to think about rotating here. Center could take a step or two onto the floor. Trail has a good angle on post play." It took nearly three times as long to break down the tape as it did to officiate the half! He complimented several of my calls (had a good, tight PC foul in transition that was right). But on tape, I see that my officiating as C was flat-out not good.

I'm not comfortable out on the floor (like I said yesterday), but I need to get off the damn sideline when the play is on the other side of the court. Same as yesterday, I'm not close at all to the play. I've learned just how bad that looks. When I call fouls from there, it flat-out looks bad. Plus, I NEVER MOVE. I look like a potted plant, standing in The Sacred C Spot. (That last part accidentally sounds dirty.) A little movement, especially onto the floor, and I'll take less guff (and likely make better calls to boot).

The second game was challenging--very fast-paced, featuring the same team I had on Friday. The coach who I said was that "not bad" on Friday was bad today--likely because his team lost by 20. Didn't say anything to him, mostly because we only had one half with him. He also knows officials won't approach him as much when he's not talking to us, but sort of bitching in the play-by-play from hell. On top of that distraction, it was a new record for the fastest game I've ever seen.

But in spite of that, my clinician said I was getting better at recognizing rotations and also doing better moving as C. I was able to improve during a difficult game.

So, after six halves of basketball, I have a tangible, accurate list of what to work on:

--Running style. (I will find a personal trainer who's expert at running.)
--Posture. (I will slow down on the spot and make sure I'm up straight.)
--Verbiage on the spot. (I will slow down on the spot.)
--More time in closedown as Lead.
--More C movement.

I normally avoid summer ball, since if I reffed too much, I'd start hating it. But I want to get right back out there to put all of this into action. And there's a good girls' tournament in town next week. I'll be putting in my availability as soon as I post this.

Camp Log Day One--A great day

2008-05-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

Camping is going quite well here...the best camp I've ever been to.

The best thing about this camp is that we don't do games...we do halves. It makes for quicker evaluations, and I don't have to think way back to certain plays.

Additionally, the clinicians I've been with (mostly local guys at the top of our association) are not out to show how much they know, but are rather out to make us better. That's a critical difference, and I've been on the wrong end of that at a couple of camps. Case in point: A couple of guys were running alongside me, making suggestions as I went. It throws me off my game--I try to listen and try to ref, but wind up not doing either. But amazingly, a clinician came to my ear and asked the following:

"Do you like it when we talk to you during the game?"

I responded:

"I do not."

They agreed only to talk to me during dead balls for the rest of camp. AWESOME.

What I've learned:

--The varsity game I had last night was high quality. The two I had today were quite a bit lesser.

--There are really two things I'm working on: C positioning and "presentation skills."

As C, I have spent my officiating career standing on the sideline. I was told that's too far away. I don't feel comfortable stepping in when there are players on my side...I feel like I'm setting a pick for a three-point shooter, or feel like I'm losing sight of a player in the corner. I asked the clinician a LOT of questions.

Then I saw the tape. It didn't lie. I was often not even in the same time zone as the play.

As for presentation skills...well, the usual. Slouchy posture, loosey-goosey running style/mechanics, and--this is new--squinting.

In short, when I call a foul, I lean into the foul and squint. I also tend to get diarrhea of the mouth...saying loads of stuff I shouldn't say.

It's late...I'll analyze this more tomorrow...but I'm feeling pretty confident I can lick this simply by slowing down at the spot. When I blow the whistle, I need to spend a one-thousand-one count ensuring I have good posture and am not squinting. This will add to my credibility.

Oh--and I need a running coach. Do you know anyone?

More tomorrow. They're giving me three games (okay...halves) that are really strong matchups, with partners that are especially strong. On the whole, they liked what they saw today and want to see how I handle it. I'm highly confident I can handle anything they throw my way.

That's a sign of a great camp.

Game Log 5/30/2008: First boys' varsity level matchup

2008-05-30T20:44:00.001-07:00

Happy with tonight, but also see how much I have to learn.

The conditions weren't ideal--it was damn muggy in there, and we were pinned back in the auxiliary gym, so I was stepping on substitutes' toes all night. Really, not much went wrong.

What I'll remember from tonight is how incredibly fast the game was, particularly in the first half.

With varsity girls and the freshman boys games, there's a little bit of time to sort of consider the call. I've been indoctrinated to let the play develop a little bit--don't give too quick a whistle--before figuring what the call is (if any).

Tonight's game didn't afford me that luxury. One of the teams was significantly quicker than the other, but the second team kept up, mostly by hitting threes. I feel like I called quite a few more fouls on the quicker team than on the slightly-slower team tonight. Maybe it was just the way the whistle bounced tonight, but it also might be something else. I'm not sure. There were occasions where I could feel my brain not going fast enough. "Okay...pick up the D...is he se--(the collision happens while I'm sort of thinking about the play developing)...um, player control, or maybe nothing...

But I do think I adapted a little as the game wore on. It was a little raggedy (it is May, after all), but the play was fairly high quality, and it was close late. I had a walk at one point that a classy coach didn't like. He asked "Which foot did he travel with?" I surprised myself with the immediacy, coherence, and confidence of my response: "He hopped on his right foot, coach." I get a little better at this every year. The other guy wasn't bad, but did do a little bit of play-by-play from hell, setting the American indoor record for "AND ONE!"s. I actually cracked a smile late in the game when he said "AND ONE!" before his player jumped up for the shot! I thought some snide thoughts, but on the way home I realized I should cut him a break. To him, "AND ONE!" is a cheer more than a complaint or suggestion. I still think he should wash his mouth out with soap.

Weird double foul late. Kids pounding like hell in the post. I didn't see an instigator, so I called both to get it to stop. Next time I'll pick it up earlier.

One call I want back...a no-call, actually...I was totally straightlined and missed a push. Nothing to do but point for White ball. My C partner (I was T) stepped in and said "No, I have a push." Fair enough, although I wish he'd done it earlier. But better to get it right, I guess. I had no angle at all. Probably a sign I'm not moving enough.

Partner I trust only had one suggestion. He felt I was a little too exuberant on a late out-of-bounds call. "Make it the same as the early ones," he said. I said "I thought that one needed a sell." He said OK. Wish I had video.

Speaking of video, I need to see myself. I hope I'm taped this weekend...I need to see my physical shortcomings. My running style and wacky posture probably matter more in the testosterone-fueled boys game than with the girls.

But it didn't hurt me tonight. It was a fast, tight, quality game, and I'm not sure that anybody could tell it was my first try. Can't complain about that. I feel damn good...like I accomplished something nice tonight.

THINGS I DID WELL: Handled the day well. Partner communication. Coach communication. No physical pain!
THINGS TO WORK ON: Speed of the game. My brain simply needs to catch up. Also, protect shooters to the floor...there were one or two where my eyes went up.

Preparation for camp

2008-05-29T21:23:00.001-07:00

I'll just be doing a quick weekender this year--local teams rather than nationwide AAU. It costs about 20% of what the other camp runs, and like many people in this country, I want to save money where I can in the current economy.

They're supposed to be checking me out for 3-man, which is fine--I've got enough experience with it that I think I can pass the test and get some good games in this year. But I'm faced with another test...my first boys' varsity-level game tomorrow. (I say "varsity-level" because, at camp, it can't technically be considered a varsity game, right?) It's not an official camp game, but a chance to cut my teeth on the faster competition so that, when I'm seen the next day, I'll have had four quarters to make some mental adjustments. I don't know one of the two partners, but the other is a damn strong varsity guy I worked with in one of my girls' varsity games last year, so it's a good way to get started. And, truthfully, I think that varsity boys may be easier in many ways than the many freshman boys' games I did last year. For starters, it's 3-man instead of 2-man. 'Nuff said. But the games will likely be cleaner and better.

Or maybe they'll be ragged. I mean, seriously. It's May.

Anyway, I've started work on one of the two things I promised myself I'd focus on this summer.

Stop the presses! I'm working out. Like four times in ten days! Whoa!

It's nothing huge...just dork-walking around the neighborhood and maybe running a half mile....or doing the same on the gym's treadmill. I do just enough to tell me that I'm desperately out of shape. Enough to perhaps break in the ref shoes I bought a couple weeks back.

But if I do this all summer long, I'll be in far better shape before the season. I did no preseason physical prep this season, and I wound up in a boot at the end of the year. Two seasons ago, I did some pretty intense workouts for a few weeks before my first game, and I made it through the year mostly unhurt (although some knee trouble arose, I blame that more on age than anything else.)

So I will. I don't think I'll ever be one of those people who actually enjoys working out, but it's something I should be doing anyway, reffing or no reffing.

Anyhoo, be ready for camp stories this weekend.

Shoes

2008-05-18T18:22:00.000-07:00

I went out to buy shoes yesterday. Camp is coming up in two weeks, and I've concluded (with the help of a podiatrist) that last year's ankle troubles are at least in part due to crappy shoes. I guess that's what happens when one puts looks first (yay patent leather).

I headed to a specialty running shoe store, where they actually take you outside and watch you run before recommending a shoe for you. I walked in and said I was a basketball ref who'd had some knee and ankle problems. I wanted a really supportive shoe and, oh yeah, it has to be all black.

They have exactly one pair of all-black shoes. I ran in them and felt some weird tweaks in my knee.

I tried on a pair of white shoes to walk in, and they felt nearly perfect. If only I could spray-paint them...

The very helpful guy said I should look elsewhere for basketball shoes or indoor soccer shoes. He said that I tend to collapse inward on my foot....the arch falls a bit. Hence, the posterior tibialis tendon problems.

So I hit the mall. Found a kid at Foot Locker about half my age.

"You can't go wrong with Air Jordans," he said, "or maybe Kobes."

The Kobes had too much non-black in them. I tried on the Jordans. They didn't feel like they were giving me much support, and the big Jordan silhouette on them would be problematic for me...I might have to strap it down with electric tape.

I was ready to move on when they gave me a third pair. They were all black and highly supportive. The bad news is they're sort of suede-y leather, so they'll never be shiny.

Bye-bye, patent leather you could smile at your reflection in.

But more importantly, bye-bye season-ending injury. I hope.

I'll test-drive them at camp in two weeks. Wish me luck.

Unusual umpire appearance on ESPN

2008-05-04T23:53:00.000-07:00

I hadn't seen the actual people involved in the wonderful story of sportsmanship that transpired in a critical college softball matchup between Central Washington and Western Oregon last week. (And seriously, if you haven't seen or heard about it, check out the ESPN tear-jerking video.) So I stayed up an extra few minutes to check it out, see the players involved, etc.

I expected to see Sara Tucholsky, the injured hitter, and Mallory Holtman, the wonderful star player whose idea it was to help her.

Surprise! One of the principals they interviewed was the umpire.

Jacob McChesney said the following:

"When [Tucholsky] got back to first base, she just...she laid there, and she hugged onto first base, and then, at that time I was staring at the base, and I go 'what on earth are we gonna do?'"

Interesting. With gag rules and such, I was surprised to see the Great Northwest Conference would have McChesney speak.

Of course, I started looking at it from an umpiring perspective--how tough it must have been to enforce what appeared to be a horribly unfair rule, but how impressive it was that McChesney and his crewmates did that anyway--and how marvelous it was that Central's players prevented that from happening.

But it wasn't just Tucholsky's home run that Holtman and her teammates saved. It was the umpiring crew's bacon.

See, it turns out that a pinch-runner would have been allowed to round the bases to finish Tucholsky's home run. The umpiring supervisor clarified that later.

I'm not going to harp on the umpires for the mistake--that's not what I do here. After all, I can't think of another instance in the thousands of ballgames I've watched where a player who has hit a ball over the fence has been unable to finish his or her home run trot due to injury. So I can see where this rule might have slipped through the cracks into the "well, we'll never see that happen" category.

So it serves as a good reminder to have a 100% solid grasp on every aspect of every rule, no matter how bizarre.

But it's a little strange to see the umpire in the piece. I guess I like it--anything that humanizes a sports official is good by me.

Still, I think I join sports officials everywhere in THANKING Holtman for her classy move. Without it, Western Oregon possibly loses the game and their NCAA regional tournament bid...due to an umpire misapplication of a rule. THANK YOU for not allowing that to happen, Ms. Holtman.