OK, so I worked my 3rd scrimmage ever tonite--and something crazy happened.
I would up working 3 man on the varsity scrimmage for the Palo Verde HS vs. Clark HS game. Palo Verde HS won the state championship last year.
It happened like this. I got there early. There was a 4 and a 6 pm game. I thought the early game was the frosh/JV games. But instead the 4 pm game was the varsity game.
Only 2 other officials showed up and it was clear that the coaches wanted 3 man and we were going to give them 3 man. I said "Hey, I hardly know 2 man, and I dont know jack about 3 man, but I am in if you need me." Well, they needed me and I wound up working the game.
It was a blast!
Of the other two officials, one was a senior guy (who was real cool), and the other was his son who had 2 years experience but had never worked 3 man, let alone 3 man on the most competitive and physically dominating team (a couple of the kids on PV were HUGE! At least 2 are going on to serious D1 ball next year).
On top of that, THE lead assigner (a guy named Rick Massey, super cool guy) showed up and another seniour guy (Vince) showed up, I guess thinking there would be some officials there to evaluate who want to move up. So here I am a total newbie working 3 man which I dont know on what is without a doubt the most competitive and athletic team I will ref for several years to come. There were dunks galore. And there sits the assigner himself.
Luckily he and the other senior guy (Vince) had nice things to say and I think perhaps were a little impressed that I was ready and willing (though probably not truly able
) to just jump in and give it a go. I then stayed and worked the JV game (2 man) and got to work the whole game. So I got a ton of whistle time tonite which was great. I learned a ton. I had several real senior guys helping me. It was great. I saw a noticable improvment in my calls, how I did my signals and how I reported. Plus, I started to really communicate with my partner--stop sign for subs, watching the clock, aware of last shot situations.
I blew my share of calls
Here was a bad one, right in front of the assigner. Guy in the post has the ball, defender reaches just as player spins, there is contact. I whistle it on the ground. I should have no called it since the guy would have easily freed himself for a dunk. By calling the foul I actually penalized the offensive player--now they have a throw in instead of a dunk. I knew it the second I called it. The lead assigner came over to me and asked me about that call. I told him what I just said. I said I should have held my whistle. He smiled and agreed and said it was good that I recognized that I should have held it. There were a bunch more, but I always had a good partner and I dont think I did any major damage
All in all a super great learning experience.
[Note: I posted some of this in the "Accidental 3 Man" thread]
Clark