First scrimmage

[A Pennsylvania Coach]

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.