[Mark Padgett]

As I stated in an previous post, in a weak moment I accepted two wreck league games last night. I thought I would be working the 35 and over league, but when I got to the gym, it was regular wreck league. Also, I wasn't aware we could wear shorts. Of twelve refs (there are six courts at this facility), I was the only one in long pants. I kept expecting someone to make a remark about me being ashamed of my legs, but it didn't happen - at least I didn't hear anything.

Overall, there weren't any problems to speak of, except one player must of had a friend in the stands named "Traveling", because he kept calling that out whenever the other team had the ball. We just ignored him. My partner, with whom I'd never worked before, was great. In two games, we had only one double whistle (on a three second call). I thought that was pretty good for being new to each other.

A really weird thing, though - the home team keeps the clock and book. What I mean is they have a player do it. The player switches all the time depending on who's on the bench and who's in the game.

Some notes on their rules: they play 25 minute running halves with one forty-second timeout per team per half with no carryover (love that) and the clock runs during the timeouts!! Stop time in the last two minutes of the game only if the point spread is six or less, and no timeouts during that time.

It's pretty much HS rules except they can enter the FT lane on the release. Plus - they've adopted the NBA flagrant one and flagrant two rule. I really like that even though it didn't come up. Plus - they each get six personals before fouling out.

Oh yeah - they have a rule against "diving". They don't want these guys diving for loose balls and getting hurt, I guess.

So, all in all, it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. Neither game went into stop time and there actually were some pretty nice plays. Go figure.