[canuckrefguy]

There is a saying....you live as a crew and die as a crew.

It must have been very frustrating, indeed. We have all been there - on both ends, I suspect.

But Rut had a great point - you have to step up. And that's not just perhaps helping out with calls more than you're used to. What kinds of conversations did you have during timeouts? At halftime? After the game?

Ask yourself what YOU did to try and make your crew work. After you've established that your partner is struggling, ask yourself how YOU can maximize the situation. Obviously you can't do it all, but you are the veteran in this situation - you need to show leadership - and real leadership is ACTION, not a position.

Let's say you were working with a much more experienced official in a game where you were struggling. Would you be looking to your partner for help?

I remember a pair of games my first season....in one, I was screwing up everywhere. My partner spent the game changing my calls, cleaning up my messes, and fuming at the other end of the court during timeouts. The other one I struggled just as much, but my partner went out of his way to try and keep me as relaxed and focused as possible. Which senior partner were you?

It's no fun having to spend an entire game cleaning up after your partner. But use the experience to see if you can act POSITIVELY on it next time.

[Edited by canuckrefguy on Oct 15th, 2004 at 01:46 AM]