A player's shoe comes off during a live ball

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by TonyT

Just wondering. If you are a big time ref then why are you reffing these 5th and 6th grade girls games and rec games?

I've been on our local IAABO board for twenty-seven years, working varsity high school games for over twenty of those twenty-seven years. Although I've never worked a state tournament game, I have worked conference tournament games, including conference tournament finals.

I also work in a Catholic school league, that includes boys, and girls, from the lower grades through eighth grade. Games on weeknights involve the older players. Games on weekends involve only younger players.

This past Friday, my supervisor let me leave work two hours early, and lose two hours pay, to work a Special Olympics Unified Games tournament, for free. I worked five games, and two involved kids playing in wheelchairs, being pushed by high school volunteer partners. I didn't make any calls, other than out of bounds all afternoon, not a foul, not a travel, not an illegal dribble, but I felt appreciated, not a single critical comment about my calls, or lack of, by players, coaches, and fans. I don't ask my supervisor to leave work early to do varsity games, but I do every year for this tournament.

So, here I am, a pretty good high school varsity official, working a game with fourth and fifth graders on a Sunday afternoon? Why? Because I love officiating interscholastic basketball. Why should I be sitting in my Lazy-Boy watching a college, or professional, game on television, when I can be out there on the floor running up and down the floor with the kids.

I love this game. I love interacting with the players, coaches, and fans, no matter what the level. Yet I still consider myself to be a "big time" official.

Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee) said "It's gotta be the shoes." He was wrong. It's the game. It's the players.