Best Game Ever?

[zebraman]

Originally Posted by Oz Referee

What is the best game that you have ever reffed? What made it so special? Was it the teams that played, the level of the game, the crowd?

Any game with a crazy crowd, good teams and good partners is a blast. I seem to have 5 or 6 of those per year. Hard to pick one favorite. I love the games that don't seem so great on paper and then turn out to be absolute barnburners.

If I had to pick one, it would probably be a game at Snohomish (local 4A team) when John Brockman (now at the University of Washington) scored 42 and had 25 boards and a guard from the other team had 41 points. It went O.T. and the gym was packed and crazy all night.

Z

[REFVA]

I had a bunch in my six years, but never have I had the crowd and excitment in a scrimage game that took place with HS Girls. It was against two ALL American rated girls. Both rated top 10.

Forest Park High School which went on to win the VA state girls AAA championship Against Oakton High School..

[ditttoo]

They say you never forget your first one.....

Still remember my first varsity game....deer in the headlights, almost too tense to even get through the warm up period, a few steps behind everyone else, and then my first whistle - dead silence for what seemed an eternity - automatic mode with mechanics and reporting as if an out of body experience and then I was fine (at least I thought so).

[Mark Padgett]

I'd have to pick two. First, years ago I worked a holiday season tournament game between the previous year's Oregon girls varsity state champs and the previous year's California girls varsity state champs. Oregon City (who else?) won by 12.

Second - it was just a scrimmage, but it was a doozy. Portland used to have a woman's pro team in the league before the WNBA. They would practice at a facility where I reffed rec leagues. One Saturday, I just finished a few kids games when the woman's team coach came over to me and asked me if I would work a scrimmage. They just found a few men in the gym who were playing a pickup game and agreed to play them.

It was loads of fun. I had a partner who also worked some college and we got along really great together. Plus - we were calling the game by the pro league's rules. The funny thing was that after the game (won by the raggedy guys by a large margin), both my partner and I discussed how much different the mens game and the womens games were. It was obvious to us that the women, even though they were pros, couldn't come close to even a bunch of gym rats in strength and speed.