More scrimmages and FIRST GAME!
 

I had my first scrimmage on Saturday. Was supposed to be a tri-scrimmage, but due to football playoffs, turned out to be just two teams, V/JV boys. I was the first one there, and ducked into the officials' room to change. I came out and found one other official there so far (six scheduled) and he told me they were ready to start if we were, so I was on the floor for the first quarter. Just as we were starting, three more very experienced guys came in, including our assistant interpreter. I offered him my spot, but he told me to go ahead and he'd give me some feedback after.

It went fairly well. I didn't feel like I did anything too wrong, and he agreed. He did have a lot of feedback for me (palm or fist up right on whistle instead of the second or so after like I was doing, get lower as trail, and have a subtle visible count on FTs). It was a pretty clean quarter, 27-20, so the shooting percentage was pretty high.

I watched the next two, a second V quarter and a JV quarter. After that, we grouped up for three-man. In our area, schools have the option for three-man for varsity, and about 25% of schools have gone for it so far. We also use three-man for post-season. I sat out the first three-man quarter so I could get briefed on the rotations and coverage areas. When I got out there, it was another V quarter. On one of the first trips down the floor, I missed a late switch by the previous lead, so I thought I was center when I should've been lead. Fortunately the center just went down and took it when he saw I didn't. After that, I got the hang of it, but I spent most of the quarter thinking about where I should be instead of focusing on the action at hand. I did get one illegal screen and I went right to the punch without thinking about it, so that felt good.

Sat one out then got back in for another three-man quarter, this time JV. I was stuck in C for a long stretch so it was an easy quarter. I did have one brain-freeze moment. I was administering a throw-in as lead from the corner. For some reason, I didn't put the whistle in my mouth. Of course, the defender reaches across and slaps the ball out of the inbounder's hand. Immediately the inbounder picked it up and passed it in, so by the time I got my whistle in, it felt way too late to call the T. I mentioned it after the quarter and the other two guys never saw it.

A couple guys took off early, and another two did the next to last quarter before leaving. So there were two of us left for the final JV quarter. This went very well. I felt like I was in good positions, and I was getting the hang of going up with my arm immediately upon whistling. Late in the quarter, I administered a throw-in from midcourt. The defenders were in a man press, so the offense stacked up and curled their PG around the stack. He took about three strides OOB in between the stack and inbounder, so I called that violation. The coach started yelling across the floor that he was pushed out, but I saw it clearly and he voluntarily took that path, so I feel good about that call as well.

Next scrimmage is tonight, V/JV girls. One more scrimmage Saturday (my former team) and my first "real" game next Wednesday, 5/6 grade travel league, with four more of those before I get to my first HS JV game the first week of December.

Good call!

Enjoy the rest of the season & thanks for the report

As Dan so subtly points out (Originally Posted by A Pennsylvania Coach /Ref) it's time to re-think your screen name.

And welcome to the dark side!!

Yea rethink it but there is no way to change it.... unless you start all over again on the board. And then it tells you that your email is already in use...I tried it already.

Sounds great, Coach! ;)
mick
[email protected]

I know this was just a scrimmage, but I think you should have called it anyway. Now both those kids don't know that's not allowed.

Better late than never, especially on a T call.

What do the rest of you think?

Make the call. Yer enriching the learning experience.

Not true, just email Brad and he'll change it.

I was someone else until just a couple of months ago when I decided that I'm a bit too opinionated at times and didn't want my full name so easily out there.

You know, it's funny. I knew who you were, but didn't even notice your handle had changed.

I was wondering about that. If you are who I'm thinking you are, well, welcome back, with or without full name.

Is there an 'F', Pat?

When in doubt, it is not too late to make a call. When there is no doubt
that it is too late, sometimes you should still make the call.

GREAT COMMENT!
You have hit upon the #1 issue with the transition to 3-man. Until people become comfortable with the mechanics of the system, their mental attention is divided and taken away from officiating the game as they are worried about their positioning. Time and experience is the only way to take care of this.

An additional point on this is that this very reason is why I feel that it is a poor idea to use 2-man during the regular season and 3-man for the postseason as is done in many areas. The refs are mentally out of whack during the playoff games, and what should be the best officiated games of the year often don't turn out that way. :(

Either that or the best hs refs are also refs who do a few college games during the season and the 3-whistle in the play-offs isn\'t a problem.

1. Doing a few games of 3-man over the course of a season does not lend itself to performing at your best come playoff time.

2. Bringing in the college guys who do only a handful of HS games all season to work the HS playoff contests is, in my opinion, unfair to those HS refs who have busted their butts all season and now get left out in the cold.