[BillyMac]

Last night. Local Christian high school girls "varsity" game. Home team is a basketball powerhouse, boys varsity, girls varsity, and Bible college teams all do well. Pastor/Principal/Boys Coach played at Purdue with Rick Mount. Visiting team is a very small Hebrew school, very conservative, wearing skirts, white T-shirts under maroon jerseys, etc. and are well coached, but are not very good. Blowout game. My partner and I decided to give them a good game, that's what we always do, on all levels. Started the game by addressing the wrong color T-Shirts with the visiting coach, and his players in the layup lines. I asked, "Coach, is there any possibility that your players could remove the illegal T-Shirts?". Coach looks stumped. Player answers politely, "We wear them for modesty reasons. We have maroon undershirts on order, can we please keep them on for tonight's game?". Home coach overhears this, and offers that she has no problem with the white T-Shirts. Neither do I. Start the game with a prayer offered by one of the home players, mostly about staying safe and having fun. Throughout the game my partner and I offered some suggestions to the visiting players. Like to the girl, who came late into the game, from way down the end of the bench, who correctly pivoted on a pivot foot, looking for someone to pass to, and then decided to do the same thing with the other foot, before throwing it out of bounds. My partner ignored the obvious travel, but offered her some advice before the throwin, like "Try to use only one pivot foot please, next time we'll have to call a travel". Another player stepped over the line on a free throw that missed, so before I bounced the ball to her for the second free throw, I suggested that she back up a little and to not step on the line. Another girl put the ball in play after a violation without me handling the ball. I gave a soft tweet on my whistle, her teammate gave the ball back to me, and I reminded the throwin player that I was there for a reason, and not to forget about the guys with the striped shirts.

After the game, my partner and I were in the parking lot having a chat, when one of the visiting players came up to both of us and said, "Gentleman, thanks for doing such a great job refereeing tonight. We all had fun, and we learned a lot. Thanks for letting us wear our T-shirts. We'll be getting our maroon T-Shirts soon". Now that's what I call a great game, plus I came home with $60.00 cash in an envelope, with prayer card.