A very weird night

[jTheUmp]

So, all of the following things were true in my last game night (JV/V boys):

1) it was a small charter school, with probably the worst floor I've ever officiated on... we're talking massive dead spots, gaps between boards up to 1/2 inch wide, only about 2 feet between the end lines and the wall, you name it.

2) During the pregame, my partner (who is also the B on my HS football crew), mentions that he had some pain in his calf the other night, but he thought it was ok now... cue the ominous music.

3) Sure enough, with about 6 minutes left in the JV game, I call a foul, go over to the table to report it, and when I turn around I see my partner laying on the floor. "something popped" in his calf, so now he's barely able to walk, let alone run. Of course, this is a 2-person game.

4) I start helping my partner back to the locker room, thinking "ok, I'll finish the JV game solo, have my partner call our assigner, see if he's got anyone available who can work the varsity with me"... as I'm talking through this with my partner, I look up and see my assigner standing in the doorway with one of the other association bigwigs. Great, we can get things rolling that much more quickly.

5) I gather both teams and coaches together, tell them I'm going to finish solo, give 'em a "I'll do the best I can, but I'm gonna need your help here" speech, and finish the JV game without incident.

6) Turns out my assigner can't find anyone (there should've been a couple of guys available who had a game canceled just that afternoon, but one of them didn't answer his phone and one was already 3 beers in at the bowling alley). My injured partner agrees to help out as best he can, so we basically stick him at permanent trail, while I'm tasked with running end-to-end on every possession.

7) I give the captains and coaches the mini-riot act during the pregame meeting... basically "you all saw my partner get hurt, he's going to tough it out as best he can and we're going to do our best, but we really need your help tonight and I'm going to have an extremely low tolerance for shenanigans" This was mainly directed at the visiting coach; I'd had him earlier in the season and he wasn't exactly the nicest guy in the gym.

Thankfully, the varsity game wasn't overly competitive (40-point differential at halftime). I've never been so happy to see a running time game in my life. And all the coaches and players were very respectful and understanding.

Two days later, and I'm still sore from the running... but my assigner was definitely impressed with me making the best out of a bad situation. I haven't yet heard back from my partner about his injury; I'm just hoping it's a calf muscle rather than a torn/ruptured achilles... I need him on the football field in August.