Waa-hoo!!!

[Juulie Downs]

Gotta admit, I'm glad tonight's game wasn't my first of this season, or I would just be done forever. It was just plain rough. But, I did a great job of handling everything and felt pretty good at the end, so it was a positive.

freshmen girls. At least 25 held balls. i doubt that the clock ever ran more than 20 seconds without a whistle. Probably 35 or 40 fouls, I didn't stick aruond to ask the table, but 4 players fouled out. Interestingly, no PC or TC fouls. 2 T's and an intentional. And it went into OT.

First two minutes, right in front of home coach, V1 gathers dribble, H1 hacks across the arm, I call a shooting foul. H coach starts chipping: "That's not a shooting foul! She wasn't shooting!" "Coach, she was trying." "That's not a shooting foul! The ball has to be out of her hand!!" "???????" Whoa, I'm thinking, this guy is clueless!! And I was right. Finally whacked him for ABS in the middle of the second quarter. And then he wanted to use a time-out to talk about the T. Sheez, roll-eyes.

At half-time he approached me quietly and asked why the technical. "Can't I just ask a question?" "Yes, you can quietly at a stoppage of play". "????" " You question was loud, rude, incited the crowd, and it was as the play was progressing." "So I'm supposed to wait till a dead ball?" "Yes, coach, that's right." "But then you'll be over there." "If you indicate politely that you have a question, I can come and answer it, but you can't just step onto the court and yell at me. It's rude and disrespectful." He rolled his eyes, but I ignored that. He was up off the bench a little during play, but not much, and my partner agreed that he'd keep an eye on him and get the next one. Funny thing is, once he started coaching and quit yelling at us, his girls started playing better, and took the lead. Coincidence? I don't think so!

Intentional was on home player who wasn't very good at protecting the ball. She finally tucked the ball under one arm, reached out and just shoved the main opponent right in the chest. Coach saw it clearly. He just groaned, and didn't say a word to me. The darn home player that shot missed them both, and it's HER fault we went into OT.

One home player had a pretty good dribble, and could shoot a mean lay-up, but V figured out how to stop her -- soccer wall right in the key. So then she'd try to split the defense, and trip, and fans wanted a foul. Sorry. As she got more frustrated, she threw herself more and more against the defense, but we couldn't call PC because she just didn't gain any advantage, and often lost the ball.

But, I had a great partner, the table was excellent, and I never lost my temper. It was really kinda fun!

Oh, and one of the team captains had the first name, "Omega." It took all my self-control to keep from asking if she had a twin named "Alpha". Heck, she could have played on that team with Jesus/God in the King James tournament!