Interesting evening with a rookie

[Rita C]

Ok. I volunteered to go to a scrimmage game. I have a big gap before my first game so I don't want the rust on too thick.

I get there and there are five refs total. I hadn't been told by the assignor that there would be two of us veterans and three rookies. But I like teaching and encouraging new people so I'm cool with it.

We shift on and off. At one point I'm sitting on the bench with one of the rookies. He leans over and says, "You called in my area twice." I raise my eyebrows inwardly. I'm surprised to have a rookie with courage enough to say something like that to a veteran. They're usually more shy. I questioned him more about when this was. And it turns out to be my problem of this season so far. At lead, I am making calls in C's half of the key. I need to have a more patient whistle. He assured me that the calls were right but they were in his area. Still interesting to be corrected by a rookie.

A few moments later, I notice one of the other rookies giving a five second count for closely guarded. Here in Washington, we don't have that when the ball is being dribbled for girls basketball. I mentioned that. The rookie I was sitting with says, "Yes you do." Eyebrows raise again. "No we don't I said." "Oh yes, last clinic Soandso said so." I told him he needed to talk to the other veteran working.

Again, a moment later he told me that the rule now was that if a player dribbling lost the dribble due to the touch of another player, he/she couldn't dribble again. OK, I'm not backing down on this one. I found it in the rulebook and showed him. He tells me he doesn't want to argue. Soandso told him that was how the rule was. I told him we do argue the rules, that's part of being an official but then we go to the book and get the correct answer.

I talked to Soandso. Of course there was more to the story. Meanwhile it will be interesting working with this new guy. I think there will be some ground rules set.

Rita