[Texas Aggie]

Had my schedule set a while back to include 2 Thursday night JV games and a Friday night varsity game. Picked up a Wed game and Saturday games (pee wee). Boy, where to begin...

Wed (one Frosh C team game) went fine. The weather here in Texas, believe it or not, has been a little hot but Wed was a great break -- welcome start to the season. The only thing weird that happened was the R "overruled" me (LJ) by declaring the runner coming to my sideline was stopped for forward progress in bounds when I signaled him out of bounds. (Hint: he went out of bounds -- it frankly wasn't even that close). Anyway, I later reminded him to respect his partners, he said he would, and we went on without issue. I think he realized he shouldn't have done that even though he was sincere in thinking they guy was held up then slung around OOB. That's true, but he had stepped out before the slinging. Trust me: in a frosh game, I'm giving all benefit of any doubt to keeping him in bounds. I guess I could have missed it, but when it happened, I didn't have a question about it.

Thursday night: hell breaks loose late. We're having few, if any issues until late in the game. V, down 13-7, is driving and gets inside the 20. I don't remember the downs, but after a close incomplete, 3 players -- 2 V and 1 H -- dive on the ball to "recover" it. We're whistling its down and H gets up and pushes V's helmet into the other one. I saw it and flagged it. H bench goes crazy -- saying I shouldn't have made that call at that point. Then they start in on everything under the sun that we missed: a dpi call, a ineligible downfield call, and one other one. Head varsity coach giving it to my LJ and BJ while we're waiting for the kickoff after V scored and went ahead. Again, not that difficult a call in my view. I had just passed on a very close roughing the passer call on that exact play -- too close to call and I decided to err on the side of a no-call. Anyway, coach calls my assignor, who I called before going home and essentially lied to him about stuff. Oh, well. They don't want us back; the feeling is mutual.

Friday night: no real discipline or bench problems (a little disagreement here and there, but not out of control). Pretty good game, but weak and sloppy first half. Something like 14 flags in the first, ended up with 21 total. I HATE that. I want 5 foul games! But, we couldn't help it. Close game, second half MUCH better played. Final 23-19 home and V's late turnover made the difference. V didn't score last 2 and a half quarters of game. We weren't perfect, but second half was solid. The only thing about last night was we didn't get off the field until 10:20 after a 7:30 start. LONG night.

Today: many of the things I hate about pee wee: coaches going crazy; fans yelling (not necessarily at us -- too much at the kids). Hot, sunny, hot, and games running late (did I mention it was hot?). No break because we were running late and after 2 and a half games, I'm literally done -- in more ways than one. Supervisor comes in and relieves me for last half (thanks, Charles!!). I cool off, down a gallon or two of liquid, drive home, nap, and I'm fine. A little red. Hot showers out for a day or two.

What's in store for next week?