Trust your partner

[tjchamp]

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?