Could have been one of my toughest games ever - but it wasn't

[Mark Padgett]

Last night - final regular season game for two of the top 8th grade boys teams in the metro area competitive league. Winner gets top seed in the playoffs which start this weekend. Doesn't sound too rough so far, but my partner doesn't show up. I call both the assignor and his assistant but just get voice mail. So I work the game alone.

I really couldn't believe how smooth it went. Neither team anywhere near the bonus at any time. Both teams playing clean and setting up their offenses, so my running was kept at a minimum. Hardly a peep out of either coach. One asked about a travel when a kid on the floor who was on his back sat up. I explained it was not a travel and he said, "OK, thanks".

Home team won by 12 and after the game, both coaches told me they are going to call the assignor and tell him what a good job I did and ask for me to be assigned to as many of their playoff games as possible. I hope not by myself, though.

The only thing that threw me off was an inadvertent whistle in Q3. A1 had the ball. A2 was standing with one foot on the sideline right in front of me. A1 passed him the ball and he took his foot off the line a split second before catching it. I blew the whistle. I'm sure I could have "gotten away with" calling an OOB violation, but I did the right thing. I called an inadvertent whistle and explained it to both coaches. They were fine with it. In fact, one of them said "I guess you're human after all."

I didn't post this just to show off, but to just remind all of us that working a game alone isn't always a disaster. And, oh yeah, I worked mostly FT line to FT line which I highly recommend is this situation.

BTW - this league pays only an extra $5 when you work a game alone. That really sucks.