Great comment from rookie ref

[Mark Padgett]

I worked three rec games last night and I had to switch gyms after the first one. The game on that one wasn't quite over when I got there and I watched a first year guy finish the game by himself (his partner never showed). It ended in a three point game. As soon as the game was over, the losing coach came up to him and said, "the fouls in the second half were eleven to two. You know what that means?" The kid, with a straight face, replied, "it means you can count to thirteen."

I cracked up. BTW - in the five minutes or so that I saw, he did an excellent job. He was working a different rec league but I'm going to sign him up for mine.

[OklahomaRef]

That's great. When I first started it meant a lot when an older official would make a nice comment, or give me a chance to earn some stripes (no pun intended).

[M&M Guy]

Mark - it sounds like he may have one of those "intangibles".

Keep an eye on him!

[elarbitro]

As a rookie official, I hope that I have one of those "intangibles" that you speak of M&M Guy. But the comeback by the 1st year official was classic.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by M&M Guy

Mark - it sounds like he may have one of those "intangibles".

Keep an eye on him!

I did speak with him after the game. I told him he didn't have to work baseline to baseline. He said he never thought of that.

Also, he called a flagrant foul (and rightly so), gave the "intentional" signal and didn't announce to the table or the coach that the player had been ejected. We discussed that also.

Other than that, in the minutes I watched, he was very impressive. His mechanics were excellent and he had "court presence", which is something I rarely see in first year officials.