Girl blocks boy's shot!

[Mark Padgett]

Yesterday, we had our "orientation" meeting for this highly competitive middle school league I work. Part of the day was spent by having experienced refs "shadow" newbies during scrimmages. By the end of the afternoon, only two teams stayed that long, one boys and one girls, both 8th grade. They decided to scrimmage each other.

The girls actually did OK, considering they were smaller and slower. The "high point" came when one of the boys went in for a layup and the girls post player came across and swatted the ball OOB just as he was releasing it. It made a big "smack" sound when hit and traveled about 30 feet.

The girls team went nuts and so did their parents who were watching. The boys point guard went over to his teammate and said, "You got blocked by a guuurrrrllll!" The kid replied, "Shut up".

It was really cool to see. I was on the baseline with three of the newbies at the time and it happened right in front of us.