Trust your partner
 

Three man crew, one seasoned vet(R), and two of us fairly new to varsity. About 2 minutes into the game, I am C with all action in trail's (U1) and lead's (R) primary areas. I'm looking thru my area towards H bench. A1, who is up by U1 throws pass to A2, b2 in the passing lane sticks his leg up so his knee is right next to his hand. I hear a thud which sounds just the ball has hit his knee. I wait about a second for him to make the call, nothing, so I blow mine. Bench goes nuts, crowd goes nuts, and I just want to crawl into a hole.

I was thinking my partner was just nervous like me, and missed the call. Turns out ball actually hit the heal of B2's hand, and not his knee. We talked about it at halftime. R advised us if U1 knew it didn't hit his knee he should have asked me if I was SURE of what I saw, then he could have reversed my call and we would have got it right. Lesson learned. Coach was really mad at the call, but after getting to the coaches side to discuss it later he admitted it did sound like a kick. The rest of the game went really good.

I don't get too nervous for subvarsity games anymore. I'm hoping the nerves go away with more V experience. Do you seasoned vets remember being nervous your first couple years?

Yes, I remember being nervous in my earlier days. It goes away. I found the best thing to do is work confidence into your game. Being confident will help the nervousness go away.

Here's a story similar to yours:

Provincial summer finals. 3-man, I'm L, a good friend of mine is T. There's only a pair of players in my area, and they're not doing anything, so I happen to look through to the ball carrier, taking a 3-point shot. I see him get whacked in the head while airborne. T has no call, so I come up with a whistle. Is this the right call?

Call what you see, not what you think you hear. :)

No.
Five, ...maybe eight. ;)

At that stage, I didn't know what I didn't know. I was too dumb to be nervous.

After 7 years I still have nerves when I step on the floor, a little nerves help me. When the gym is throbbing with the pep band music and the bleachers are filled when you walk out that floor after the JV game I always get a little twinge in my chest and lump in my throat.

(I told one of my partners that story last year as we were on a long drive and he told me to stop eating chilidogs before games)

Good advice. And talk to your cardiologist.

If I were the referee on this crew, my 1st question for you would be why you call a kick in your partner's area? We pregame that we will only call things in a partner's area that are calls that we HAVE TO HAVE FOR THE GOOD OF THE GAME. A kicked ball is not a call like that. A fist, high elbow, violent push, etc. will qualify as a have to have call. Other than that, each official will have to live with what he calls or does not call. If your partner misses a call like that, he will have to explain it, but in my experience, officials are wrong quite often when they call out of their area.

I also pregame that each official needs to do his job, which starts with calling his area. We don't need to help our partners do their job. If one or more of the officials pon the crew is a newer V official, I try to talk about proving that you belong by what you don't call, rather than what you call.

As for the nervousness, I thnk it is normal. Until I gained a certain level of comfort with where I was, I was nervous. Last year I worked a State Semifinal game with an official who was there for the 1st time. He had obiously worked at the V level for a number of years and worked some smal college ball, but this "level" was new to him and he was nervous being there. Just go out and work your game. That is what got you there, keep doing what you do.

Good luck.

First time?

No, I've been nervous lots of times.

:D :D

(Sorry - I had to throw that priceless Airplane! quote in there.)