[dhodges007]

Originally posted by Back In The Saddle
I figure if I can lament my worst moments here, I ought to be able to crow a bit about the best ones.

It's nearly one in the morning and I still can't sleep, I'm too excited. Had a freshman girls game this afternoon. Match up between what are probably the two best teams in the region. Small gym, but nearly packed and loud. Really rockin' atmosphere--it makes me excited for what it must be like to do a varsity game with the crowd going nuts.

Visiting team plays aggressively the first half and pulls ahead by about 15. 2nd half, the home team kicks it up a couple of notches and chips away at the lead. They get to within five points, but run out of time. Hard fought game all the way to the end, with three or four players fouling out.

As exciting as the game was, however, I was more excited about what we did today. I am scheduled as the U and the R is a first year official. He's just come from a funeral and has had some very challenging things to deal with over the holiday. I work on getting him focused and we have a decent pregame.

After laying off for a couple of weeks, I'm feeling just a little odd being back on the floor, but that quickly passes. I'm also feeling very rested and I'm even beating the girls to the endline on fast breaks most of the time. I'm in the right places, seeing the right things, and getting the calls right. It just feels right!

My partner, however, is struggling and hasn't called much at all. We talk at half time and I suggest that he probably needs to get on the whistle more in the second half. Even though he's new to basketball, he's a very successful official in another sport, so he understands about getting into the game. And he does it.

Second half goes even better. Good energy, good focus, good communication. Things flow well and we have the game under control. Although I have a couple of less than stellar moments, like forgetting the number of the fouler after I get distracted on my way to the table (I guessed between two girls and got it wrong, but fixed it) and pointing the wrong way on an OOB a couple of times.

With less than a minute, home team has a real shot at pulling it out. They call time out, I huddle up with my partner and we talk about how we're going to handle the rest of the game: stay sharp and focused, make the calls; who has the clock; time out was called after a made free-throw, so home team has the run of the baseline--which they use. We finish strong.

There are a couple of aspects that I'm most excited about. First, it was really a break-out game for me. I can probably name 50 things that we could have done better or that I need to work on. But we called everything that had to be called, and we kept the game under control from start to finish.

Second, I faced my most worrisome demon and won. I successfully carried a weaker partner and made sure we got the job done well. I kept things under control while he struggled. I helped him get focused and into the game.

A friend suggested to me recently that whenever he takes the floor, he wants to be recognized as the guy you go to if there's a problem--the guy who'll get it done, and done right. (apologies to my friend for so badly paraphrasing him) Well, today, for a brief 32 minutes, I was that guy and it felt great!!!

Way to go!! Congrats on a game well done.