Hello.
The moral of this post is to always carry your gear with you. If you don't read the rest of this post, please do me the favour of always having your gear with you.
On to the story; this could be long.
First, let me say that last Sunday, November 21, 2004 was the best day of my sporting life. I attended my first Grey Cup in the nation's capital, Ottawa! It was absoltely perfect Canadian football weather. (Weather that Brett Favre and his comrades would love to have every home game.) There a slightly more than slight chill in the air - just enuogh to remind everyone that we're Canadian. And we're all there drinking Canadian beer, cheering for either the Argos or the Lions. The Argos win in a fantastic game, and the officiating was fantastic!
This weekend was the Vanier Cup weekend. The OFSAA Bowls (provincial champions: see previous thread about State Playoffs) and the Vanier Cup (CIS crown game, NC2A equivalent) were held. To top it off, the Vanier Cup Dinner was Friday night. I went back down to Hamilton today to take pictures with a nice 6.0 megapixel camera - I'm kinda the photographer of my association. Some crew shots, some action shots - it's all good.
I watched part of the ending of the 1st half of the National Capital Bowl. While in the dressing room at half time, we meet the crew of the NC Bowl, and say our Hellos. After this game was the Western Bowl, the last tackle football game in Ontario in 2004. The WH for the NC Bowl asks who's WH'ing the WB. It's a guy named Dave. (My name is Mike.) He says, "Dave, you gotta go in, I've done something to my achilles. I can't do the second half." We're all kinda shocked - the second crew anyways. Dave starts to change into his gear, when two powers that be (both on the exec of the provincial officiating authority) decide to make a better suggestion. Keep Dave out of the NC Bowl so that he can run his pre-game for the Western Bowl, and send me in to WH the second half of the National Capital Bowl. (I brought my gear just in case.) From what people tell me, the look on my face was priceless. Needless to say, I was all stunned, happy, in awe, and estatic at the same time. I go out and give my best. I received excellent reviews.
Then I come back into the changeroom and am told to keep my stuff on. Now I am *really really* confused. Turns out that a gentleman travelling from quite some distance had not yet arrived at the stadium. I guess he arrives 10 minutes before game time. He was politely told that he had been replaced. So I go down to the Steel City to take some pictures, and I ended up getting two assignments.
The best part was, after finally meeting ref18, Julian, in person Friday night at the Vanier Cup dinner, was that I got to work with him during the Bowl games. He was also on the crew.
I also was able to work with my local friend and official, Dave on the WB. I had some friends in the stands, and two people I highly respect were there to speak up when a fill-in was needed and neither one hesitated to bring me in.
For all this, I am thankful. From my 1st Grey Cup to officiating the last tackle football game in Ontario is 2004 - all in 8 days.
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Pope Francis
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