[Back In The Saddle]

I agree with much that has been said. An official should give every game his or her best effort, boys or girls. What was so ironic with this game is that we had all of the stereotypical things we've discussed: jewelry issues, held balls, and a blowout.

Chin Ref, as for switching gears, you just gotta go out expecting every game to be difficult. If it turns out to be easy, then you can adjust. Then again, every game requires some adjusting. But going from an easy game to a hard game seems to take the most.

In this case, the adjustment was particularly acute because the winning team's coach (who is the league assigner of officials) asked us to "swallow the whistle" for the second half, which we did. We only called two fouls on that team, both frustration fouls that had to be called. So, in addition to adjust to a different level of play, we also had to adjust our mindsets back to calling the fouls and violations instead of letting them go.

I stand by my original assertion: with girls ball, you gotta keep on your toes. You're more likely to have unusual situations arise in girls ball, like the held ball right off the jump.