[BryanV21]

I have to make a confession.

This is really hard, not only because I'm re-living this incredibly embarrassing moment, but I'm doing so among some of the best officials I've had the pleasure to converse with.

You might wonder why I would say anything, then. Well, I think it's because I feel awful about it, and a part of me hopes it's not as bad as I've made it out to be in my head.

Here's what happened...

During the 4th quarter of a hotly contested varsity boys contest, one of my partners calls a shooting foul. I switched to the lead, so I was administering the free throws. Just as the free thrower for Team A gets possession of the ball, a teammate of his on the free throw lane pushes a player from Team B that was lined up next to him. My other partner, who is the C during the free throws, calls a pushing foul.

At this point we get together to make sure we correctly handle things at this point. We decide to clear the lane and allow the player from Team A, who originally got fouled on the shot, to attempt his two merited free throws. Following those two attempts, we'll go to the other end and shoot 1-and-1 (Team B was in the bonus).

After the initial two free throws by Team A, with the lanes clear, we go to the other end for the 1-and-1. BRAIN FART TIME! We didn't bring the players on the lane lines for the 1-and-1. The player for Team B shoots the first free throw, and misses. At this point my partner and I know we royally screwed up.

We get together and decide this isn't correctable, so the only course of action is to go to the AP arrow, which goes to Team B (the team that just shot and missed the 1st of a 1-and-1). The HC for Team A is not happy at all, and I can't blame him. All we can do is apologize for our mistake, and let him know that going to the arrow is our only course of action, as we can't assume the rebound by either team, nor can we re-shoot the 1st of the 1-and-1.

It turns out that Team A loses by 5 points. Did our mistake cost them the game? Probably not, but that doesn't make me feel much better about the error. Yes, my partners booted the play too, but I'm very hard on myself and am having a hard time letting this go. I guess I'm afraid this could end up hurting me somehow in the future, whether that's due to the assignor for this league not using me and my crew as much, or my chances of moving up taking a hit.

I'm not looking for sympathy. I just needed to get this off my chest, and this seemed like as good a place to do it as any.

Thanks for reading.