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This time of year around here, a lot of high school programs make a little money by running weekend tournaments for middle school age teams. I worked some of this stuff this weekend (see "Parking Lot Punch"), at the hs where the girls team is expected to unseat our reigning local girls' basketball dynasty. My partner never showed, so the tournament director asked one of his players to ref with me. She's a sophomore who starts varsity on this really good team.
When he told me this is what he was going to do, and she went running off to find a shirt (which had a collar, by the way) and whistle, I was sitting there thinking, "okay, what do I tell a 15-year-old girl who isn't really interested in reffing but might be a good ally somewhere down the road?"
I finally settled on telling to to keep an angle between the ball-handler and the defender, and I'd handle all the off-ball stuff. I talked about A/D and what to no-call. It was very clear that the game would be a blow-out, so I suggested that we'd be pretty lenient on white, and if the blue coach complained, I'd talk to him.
I tossed. For about the first four minutes, she wasn't quite sure where she should be, and I was rehearsing how to tell her where to get to when she was new lead. But then she got the hang of it, kinda on her own. She switched sides when the ball was coming in there, she had some good no-calls, and she made an excellent PC call, without any help, except for me to show her the signal. She would move ball side when necessary, and she stepped in when whistling a held-ball. I didn't tell her any of that, she just did it on her own.
Second game was much closer, and we needed to be very attentive. Skill wasn't very high, but the intensity was. I talked to JJ about off-ball, and that I would need her to watch especially for illegal screens in and near the paint. She did great. Her instincts were good and she was really a help.
It was just a lot of fun, and she enjoyed it too. I told her, if she doesn't make it into the WNBA, that she could still stay in the game by reffing. I also told her I hoped she wins the tourney this year!
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