[MN BB Ref]

I live in the Twin Cities metro area and the third game I ever reffed in my life was a girls varsity game. Luckily it was a 3 man crew so I was able to hide many of my shortcomings (and there were plenty). The rest of that first season was spent working JV, 10th grade, 9th grade, mens rec league, and AAU ball. In all I worked nearly 100 games that first year. I didn't see another varsity game until my fourth year of officiating and then I only had two varsity games. It wasn't until my sixth year that I truly had a full varsity schedule that consisted of about 25 games. It was also in my sixth year that I received my first playoff assignment and ironically I was assigned to work the first two rounds of the playoffs that year.

I'm now in year seven and looking forward to many more years of varsity ball. I used to think that I wanted to work small college ball but now I'm not so sure about that. I find that working high level HS ball is very satisfying and I'm not sure I would want to drive 3-4 hours (each way) for a $120 contract.

As Sheryl Crow said, its not about getting what you want, rather its about wanting what you got. I'm there.