I was there for the 2nd time. I am an old guy with average high school skills who is not going to be picked up for college, but I enjoyed the camp so much last year I decided to return.
For those of you who don't know about the camp, It is geared mainly for womens college officials trying to move up to the D1 level, or high school officials trying to get a look for college assignments. It is held on the UNC, Duke, and NC State campuses in conjunction with the Deep South Classic girls tournament. The evaluators are all assignors or D1 officials with impressive resumes (some of whom you see on TV every week).
I worked 10 games in 3 days with some fantastic officials and mostly good feedback.
I learned to adjust my calls to the strength of the teams playing. In one particular game, there were as many college coaches as parents and spectators present. We were told to have very patient whisles and let them play thru as much legal contact as they could. Those two teams were able to play thru things that would have completely disrupted a normal high school girls game. Its so easy to just call the obvious fouls and violations. Other games were more typical or one sided and I got to practice game management. My last three games went to OT but were decide quickly as the OT format called for a sudden death win for the first team to go up by two points.
I learned to be stronger in the C and not let the more college hardened officials take my calls from me and to step in closer as trail in order to be more able to help out on strong side calls. I also learned to adjust my position in the C on free throws in the college game where they play up on the blocks as opposed to below the blocks in most high school leagues.
Hey! I had a great camp, wasn't completely happy with my performance, but can go home and say I worked a game in The Dean Dome, Camron Indoor Stadium, Carmichael Gym, and Reynolds Gym all in one weekend!
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Failure is fertile ground on which to plant new seeds.
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