Advice for first college experience?
 

It's not a big deal at all (evidenced by the fact that I've been selected to do this), but I'm filling in at a local D-II University scrimmage tomorrow morning. One of my goals is eventually to work my way into some college officiating, but I'm not there yet, and have no false assumptions that this means anything other than I'm friendly, do a good job at the HS games I do, and available.

I do, however, want to do as good a job as possible for them tomorrow, so I'm open to any and all advice from those who have any experience switching between HS and NCAA officiating. Any "swing thoughts" I should have in my head? Any easy review of rules differences other than the back of the NFHS manual? Anything else?

Most of all, I'm going to enjoy it and call the best game I can, but I'm excited just to experience this level of game play and see how I stack up, so I want to be as prepared as possible...

Who is running scrimmages in mid-season? Now that I think about it, it's probably to get some competition during the holiday break when there are no games on this team's schedule. Makes sense.

Anyway, my advice would be to try to be a little more patient on the whistle. The players can do things at this level that high school kids can't do. Give them a half-second more to do it before calling a foul. If they can't make the play or the ball comes loose, then you can still make the call.

Go over rule differences before the scrimmage with your partners.

If you don't do a lot of 3-whistle, then worry about officiating, instead of positioning. The positioning will come. Make sure you remember to call your area.

Communicate.

Good luck. Hope it goes well.

Thanks, Scrapper. You're right on the competition thing - they play Saturday for the first time since Dec 16.

Fortunately, I do almost only 3-man, so mechanics won't be an issue.

Thanks for the help!

As a person who would LOVE to be in your shoes, I'd like to give this advice.

Don't downplay it quite so much. Yea, it's only a scrimmage, yea, it's partly due to your availability. Still, there are plenty of other folks who are available but aren't gonna be doing D-2.

Be nervous, if it'll help you wind up your flywheel. Go into the game fully prepared physically and mentally, and then just relax into it and have a great time. Similar to a first varsity game, or a first real college game. Plan to have a friend or spouse available to have a little celebration afterward.

And report back here. Some of us really enjoy the vicarious thrills of hearing about others' "conquest" games.

Don't call anything in the last two minutes on a star player unless it's blatant and make sure the scorekeeper lets you know whenever a player gets four fouls. :p

Oh yeah, let 'em dunk during pregame and wear taped earrings.

Very good stuff.. That just about sums up this week's postings. :D

Make sure to have a uniform that dosen't have any local patches, make sure that the State patch is not on the uniform also. Any patch should be the Flag. Lot of action will be going on and very fast!!! Make sure you pregame with partners. First whistle buys the BEER!!

Have fun. Do what you normally do for the most part.

Peace

You left out.....<i>Make sure that you don't drive any frontend loaders off of cliffs.</i>:D

Thanks to everyone. I'm heading out in about 90 minutes. Really looking forward to it.

And I'll watch out for frontend loaders. Even though I have no idea what that apparent inside joke means, it doesn't sound fun... :D

Wow! Wasn't that like 3 years ago? You old folks are amazing with your ancient history. :eek:

Quick report afterwards:

First of all - very low pressure. All three officials call HS around here, none of us had college experience prior, so we worked together pretty well and used HS mechanics for switches on fouls.

The game itself was a lot of fun. Neither team ran a lot, which was probably good for me, but it was decently physical and athletic with good ball handlers and well played on-ball defense.

I never knew how much fun a game could be when you have true shooters on the floor - holy cow!!! Obviously you expect college teams to shoot better than HS teams, but the difference is incredible when working it. It seems to really help the game develop a rythm when players can hit jumpers and long balls.

As for my game, I couldn't feel much better. I really felt "into" it and like I called a very solid game. It really officiated itself. There were a couple "and 1s" called by the crew that probably would have been better to have a patient whistle and not call when the player played through it, but other than that, I have no complaints. I felt like with some more experience and mentoring I can definitely call this level of ball.

The coach is sending me a copy of the tape, so hopefully I'll have a lot more to learn from when I get it.

Thanks to those of you who responded to the post - it was helpful!

How can you forget anybody that tried to run a slalom course on a frontend loader?