It's the day after.... I woke up this morning and felt like I had the biggest hang over. I don't know if it was dehydration or all the noise and excitement in the gym last night. Best experience I have had and by far the biggest game.
2 person crew and my partner is someone I have known for about 7 years. I respect and appreciated his knowledge and ability. I say this just to let you know that that was the first part of being able to relax and just have some fun. Combined we have about 50 + years of officiating experience. I was very comfortable knowing I didn't have to worry about what was happening out of my areas of responsibility because I knew he was on it.
Game started fast up and down the court, I should say this was the #1 vs #2 teams in the league. 7 minutes in and the #2 team was up 21-3. It was looking like the top could have come off. Once the players nerves settled down they started playing good controlled ball. Unfortunately the home team could never recover from the early lead and ended up loosing by 30.
I was comfortable with being able to let the kids play yet still get any fouls that were there to keep the game under control. Very loud in the gym like I said and I made one call were I reached up the line a bit on a press. Talked to my partner about it first oportunity and cleaned that up with no other personal issues. We had to intervene in a bit of a scrum after a hard foul that was called. Couple of kids were talking smack then it was a push, push. So hit em both with unsprting fouls. Late in the game I watched as defensive post 2 handed the O post in the back so I called it. Turned out it was his 5th foul. As I am reporting it I get knocked in the shoulder, look over and its this kid who came up and shoved me in the shoulder. I couldn't believe he did that. Took me a second to comprehend what he did and I T'd him up. The T got charged to the HC because the kid was already disqualified. When I explained what happened and why the HC was getting the T all he said was Ok how many can I get.
Final 6 minutes of the game was played by bench personal, no further incidents. Overall this game had the possibility of getting out of hand. It didn't and I feel we were professional and allowed the players to play.
I FEEL GOOD, and still on a bit of a HIGH!
