Officiating and Such

I read my last post again and, wow, I was a bit angry.  I'm not saying it wasn't the truth, cause it was, but still it was pretty aggressive.

Anyway, high school basketball has started, which means I have started officiating again.  I'm really enjoying it again.  I have officiated 12 games to this point and I have 7 more games this week.  I officiated my first boys game last week and as I have often said "somebody is going to get the first T."  I didn't hand out a T all of last season.  I should have, but I didn't.  Well, I call a jump ball and 20 seconds afterwards (after the ball has rolled away from the 2 players) one of players jacks the other one back down onto the floor.  Whistle, T.  Then he comes over and says, "What did I do?"  Really?  I told him what he did and then I said "you know exactly what you did. Get away from me."  I explain it to the coach and move on.  It wasn't near as dramatic as I had anticipated.  I was talking to one of the parents after the game from the same team as Mr. T. and I said, "I hated called that T."  He said, and it meant a lot to hear this from a fan, "it was a good call right there."  Nothing more than that.  It was really nice to hear that.

To this point, I am only working Middle School, Freshman and some JV games (this is my 2nd year).  I am very anxious to move up the ladder and see how far I can go with this.  But, I need to make sure that I don't move up too soon.  I gotta make sure I have my mechanics down and that I learn how to properly interact with the coaches first.  It's hard to wait, but I'm enjoying learning.  I have 3 Freshman Boys games this week and then my first JV Boys game this Friday.

My son ran 17:38 this Saturday at the Footlocker Midwest Regionals to set a personal best in the 5K.  I was so happy for him as he has worked so hard.  It was great to see the joy on his face that showed that all that work was paying off.

Poker?  Eh...won my league again, but I was so blitzed that night that I can't really tell you much about it.  I know that I had the nuts (and that I practically told the caller what I had) on the hand that I went out on (against my follower...) but he caught runner runner to beat me.  Oh well, I am not sure I could have survived that tournament without making everyone mad anyway... :)

Otherwise, I have been watching IU basketball and boy do they have a depth of talent that I doubt any other team in the nation has.  And, they are only going to get deeper!  3 games from now IU gets 2 of their big men back (6-8 and 7-0 Freshman) and sometime this month they get Elston back.  Wow, where are all the minutes going to come from???