Last night I did indeed have my games, despite all the snow in the area. In talking with my partner and the sophomore officials in the locker room, it sounded like a lot of school had decided to cancel their games. I was lucky I got to work last night.
They played the B game first. I had worked the home team’s B game before the new year, so I was a bit familiar. Actually as the game went on I realized I had worked the visitor’s B team earlier in the season as well.
The game did not start out well from a coach-referee-relationship standpoint. I called a foul on some rebounding action, and the H (home team) coach didn’t agree with me. He told me my call was “incorrect”. That comment certainly set the tone for the rest of the game. I don’t remember anything weird that happened during the first game. The biggest thing that stuck out was the comments from the H coach. Every time he didn’t like a call there was a comment. I warned him once, and came very, very close to giving him a technical foul. In hindsight I probably should have. But we got through the game and moved on. The V’s were clearly the better team and won the game.
The A game was the polar opposite of the B game. In fact, I had what I felt like was my best game of the year. I was very active for the whole game, hustling and such. I even found myself stepping down on rebounding action. What that means is when I’m in trail, when a shot goes up, I should take a step or two towards the baseline to get a better angle on the rebounding action. It’s something they tell you from the beginning, but it takes practice to do it consistently.
It was a long game with a lot of fouls. I think both teams got to the double bonus in both halves. Despite the 40+ fouls, the game had a great pace to it. Both teams played with a ton of energy, and the coaches were intense as well. It helped that both coaches were good to us, save for a couple of occasions I’ll explain later. It’s amazing how much easier it is to officiate a game that has a good pace to it, even if it’s a blowout. This ended up being a close game, and both coaches were complimentary towards our officiating.
I always put more stock in a compliment from a losing coach. It’s easy to compliment the officials if you win. It’s not so easy to compliment the officials if you lose. In this case, the visitor’s coach was talking with us at halftime and said how much he appreciated our answering of his questions. He said he’s still learning all the time, as is the case with a lot of freshman coaches. He again complimented us after the game. It’s refreshing to see a coach who can do that. Not that I’m looking for accolades and congratulations all over the place, but I think it’s nice that the coach went out of his way to thank us and compliment us.
There was one thing my partner called that I had never seen called in a game before. It’s a violation for a player to leave the court for an unauthorized reason. It’s seen as gaining an advantage. The court is 84′ x 50′. It’s your responsibility as a player to stay within those boundaries. It doesn’t matter whether or not the player is on offense or defense, it’s a violation either way. This was one that the offending coach needed an explanation on. He actually got it from both of us at different times.
There was sort of a comical play that happened. H1 gets the ball after a steal and starts up the court. He’s pushed from behind, so I call the foul. As I go to report the foul, I see he can’t get up. I thought he was hurt, but it turns out he was stuck to the court. He must have caught his jersey on a tiny piece of the floor that was sticking up. He needed help to get unstuck and everyone had a good laugh about it. What did happen, though, was he brought up a little bit more of the floor when he fell. It was enough to be a safety concern in my mind. It wasn’t sticking up at a sharp angle, but it could have been an issue.
I tried to get some tape to put down as a temporary solution, but the trainer happened to be in the gym and said that would be a bad idea. The school’s AD was also in the gym, and she agreed with the trainer’s assessment. So we didn’t do anything and played on. Luckily we didn’t have any more problems with it, and I’m sure it got fixed this morning.
It was a good night. The bitching and complaining from the first game was completely overshadowed by the second game. I think if my season ended tonight, I would be ecstatic with the way it ended.
Next up, though, is a good challenge. It’s a boy’s JV game on Saturday morning. I’m looking forward to it.
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