Last night I drove about 85 miles one-way to work a girls varsity game. Around here you typically work both boys and girls games since they are assigned by the same commissioner.
Prior to this game I had worked 6 varsity boys games. Yesterday morning (I had returned from out of town late Thursday night) I contacted my partner, who then told me that he thought the game was tonight (Saturday) instead of last night (Friday) and that he couldn't work. Of course, being Friday, every replacement I called was working.
So he finds a replacement and he's working his 4th varsity game ever. No big deal -- small school girls game and we do a thorough pregame.
My timing was just a bit off, I'll admit. After working a half-dozen boys games, I was not prepared for everything to slow down as much as it did last night. I was determined not to let the game turn into a foul-fest -- I stressed advantage/disadvantage during the pregame with my partner and we worked hard at it through a good first half -- a total of 10 fouls by both teams, with one being a PC foul and 2 on defenders holding cutters off ball. All GOOD fouls.
At halftime, my partner got a bit close to the table and the coach asked him if he was calling a football game since we had left much incidental contact go. I got my partner's attention and got him over with me opposite the circle, midcourt, and the coach gave up trying to have a long-distance conversation and went to the locker room.
It seems as though the girls coaches and fans around here understand the Tower principle far less than the boys coaches and fans. We had one rebound where the home player cleared the rebound and then got bumped from behind by a visiting player. Of course, I didn't call the foul, and I took a huge amount of grief for it -- seems a lot of the parents and coaches want every bit of contact called in these games.
Sorry, not going to change the way I officiate
Oh well, boys game tonight.
Rich