The first Games are DONE! (12/15/07)

Yesterday I had two varsity games, one boys one girls. It was my first round of games since coming back from DC. Felt a bit weird to get on the court again, but boy was I happy to run again and to add another bonus.... I had two very good crews.

My first game was early afternoon small school girls varsity game. Thought it might be an ok game as both teams were 0-4. The game started out pretty close with low scores and pretty low level play. I can only imagine what the JV game was like.... I was working with a couple of my favorite officials from our local group. We had a good time trying to keep everyone focused as the game became a blowout in the third. Being my first game back it took sometime getting use to where I was suppose to be and reporting the foul correctly. Being that I did a couple college camps over the summer and worked a couple college scrimmages in DC, my high school mechanics just are not quite where they need to be for tomorrow (where I bet I will be evaluated). The only things I really remember about this game is one time as trail I was watching the dribbler begin to drive to the basket when she pulled a small button hook and got nailed with the body in the C's area. We had a double whistle on it which looking back was a good call. I just need to really get my darn mechanics down!!

A few hours after that game I went to another boys varsity. This was one of the top level small/medium school basketball programs in the state. They were playing a team from across the state who traveled a few hours to get here. I got there in the first quarter of the JV game to evaluate (have to evaluate 60% of the JV games before the varsity) and found two interesting guys working... One was a guy who works everyday all the time and is not completely "there" and the other is an over zealous official who is ranked higher then me on the girls side but still a JV official on the boys side. They did an good job as there JV game wen into DOUBLE OT. They will get dinged though on their score because overtime was set for 5 minutes....

Our pre-game was short, but I explained everything I knew about this cross state team and then the R talked for a bit. We walked onto the court with the band playing nice and loud. Warm-ups were boring as usual until I saw the center on my side go up for what should have been a lay up only to have a slight dunk. See I saw him go above the rim and his hand did make some contact with the rim, but not a lot and their was no grasp. i knew this was a dunk in book terms, so I went to the R and explained to him what I had and he suggested that we just warn the kid since there was no flashy show of grasp. I said OK and did that and in the end, I think it was the right thing to do. The game started with an interesting tip off, I was U-1 and the ball went to the baseline my side with both teams after it so I worked it as if A got the ball and was going to shoot on this side, but then B got it and as we cam back the other way I found myself having to get to the C spot as the U-2 went to lead. Talked about it at halftime and found some mild confusion on who had ball control, but it worked out ok.

Now boy did I have to step it up. The fast pace of a boys varsity took by surprise as it always does and my first sweat of the season broke out. The game stayed close for a bit, but the local team so took a nice lead going into halftime. I sure do hate when a team is up by so much and keep the darn press on and foul... I mean take the press off and play real defense. What I need to work on from this game is slowing my ass down, coming to my reporting spot and STOPPING and then reporting with HS mechanics. I felt I handled myself well and my call selection was decent. The game went fine until late in the third when Team A had a fast break and B being down by a bit was trailing him and gave him a little push in the back on his layup and A went down. He made the basket and I came up with intentional foul. Of course I go and report the wrong number, but it turned out OK and everyone was fine with the call. The game ended just fine and after that, I rewarded myself with a nice meal.

Monday: BIG school girls varsity

Liked what I did Saturday overall, kept things in control and my court presence was there.

Need to slow my ass down and stop and report. Get back into feeling more comfortable on the court and my hustle needs to be picked up in the boys game.