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Some of us like to bust on each other about rules knowledge vs presence, I had a once in every 20 yrs situation at camp that illustrates both. Second of 2 free throws, the ball ends up resting on the ring. B1 goes up & grabs it off. I'm C, no brainer BI call. Tweet, count the basket, B's ball to run the endline. Coach A asks "that's 2, right ref?" Since every other BI/GT I've ever seen is 2 points, occasionally 3, I switch off my brain, turn around, put up 2 fingers & nod my head. Coach B jumps up - "how could it be 2 points on a free throw???" and I cooly say "yeah 2, why not?" Great presence so far. Coach sceeches "WHAT???", which kickstarts me back into reality and I hear a little voice inside saying "nice going assh*le" - followed shortly by "hey wait...free throws? BI? Aint there something in every test about FT's & BI....or was that GT? Or maybe not? That's the one everyone always get wrong anyway...don't worry about it, it will never happen to YOU...yeah right...damn!" Now there's 2 voices, the second one is saying "c'mon...that wasn't off the FT, it was on the put back...you know it's impossible to have BI/GT off a FT fergawdsake." Meanwhile the first voice has started reciting every test Q/A it remembers when a third voice pipes in "They did tell us this camp follow HS rules, right?" and the coach apparently has decided "WHAT????!!!!" does not sufficiently express his disappointment....but coach A is on my side for sure 'cause he chimes in helpfully "hey man, he already said it's 2 damn points now let's get the game going ref". The one thing I do know is that during all this I am showing great presence, I may have just turned this thing into a sh!thouse but I'm looking cool standing there in front of the table with all these voices going on inside & outside my head...and the next voice I hear is my partner whipering "Dan! Dan! Get off the floor and stop crying! It's one point, one point." He slaps me and I ask "One? Not off the put back?" And he hugs me and says "that's right, just one. It's just one point". So...now I'm back! I turn to the table, put up 1 finger with a big "one point! B gets the ball & the endlne!" Coach A seems OK with it afterall 'cause he's smiling to himself, shaking his head but coach B apparently has still not gotten over his initial shock because he's now subtlely questioning my ability & my heritage. But I do have the presence to say "C'mon coach, I was just seeing if you're paying attention is all" as I jog on by him. I think I did detect a slight smile as he said "Just keep your damn head in the game"
[Edited by Dan_ref on Aug 27th, 2003 at 11:54 AM]
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