First Time for Everything

[bigdogrunnin]

OK, had to share . . .

Was helping out a friend of mine who is an assignor in our area last night. He needed me to do 2 JH Girls games (7th A, 8th A). 7th A goes off without a hitch. 30 pt. blowout. 8th Grade game seems to be going OK. I am not particularly happy with my partner, but he is working hard and giving his best, so fine. Middle of 2nd quarter, Team A player catches a pass above her head and is holding it with both hands, still above her head. Team B player comes over and punches (closed fist) the ball out of her hands a split second after she catches it. TWEET. I blow my whistle. Violation . . . OOB to Team A. Never had this call before. VG coach who is there to watch the game asks me about the call, and I let him know violation. At half I look it up . . . Rule 9.4 (NFHS) . . . something like "cannot strike the ball with a closed fist."

Second one . . . I am L, partner is T. Team B player is going down sideline. Team a player runs in front of her. Team B player falls and loses ball OOB as a result of contact from Team A player. TWEET! I have a straight block, looking right through the play. Partner runs up, TWEET! OFFENSE . . . and signals the opposite direction. He NEVER even looks at me or acknowledges my whistle. Had he done so, I would have held my call to make sure we were on the same page. He never even turned around, and had his back to me the entire time. Yes . . . the dreaded BLARGE!!! CRAP! What now . . . so, I run over to him and ask what he has. He says offense. "Are you sure?!" I ask. "Yep!" OK. I report my foul, we call a double foul and go to point of interruption. Couldn't believe it. Leave up to a JH Girls game to get me into those situations . . . Oh, and team B won the 8th grade game too.