Hey AK ref

[Mark Padgett]

Worked a game at a camp today involving a team from here in Portland and a team from Alaska (boys varsity). The coach said they were from some town that sounded like "Wadzilla" - kind of like Godzilla with a "W". They had "Warriors" on their uniforms. He said it is a small school about 45 miles outside Anchorage. I thought telling me it was a "small school" was redundant, since they were from Alaska.

Anyway, apparently they have some kid who is 6'8" and really good, but he hurt his knee the day before and I didn't get to see him play. Their coach said he's had "tons of colleges" interested in him.

The game was really close most of the way, with no team leading by more than 4. At the end of the third, we were tied at 40. Of course I then told my partner that if the game went into OT, it was his fault.

The Alaskan team made a lot of turnovers in the fourth and lost by 9. They played pretty well, but they had one point guard who was a real whiner.

Finally, I told him, "Girl's camp is next week." I said it in front of a bunch of players and that shut him up.

There was a grand total of two spectators. They were the parents of one of the boys on the Portland team. My partner made a travel call on the baseline that negated a basket and the dad stood up and yelled, "That's a terrible call." I guess it was on his son. There was a timeout and my partner came over to talk. Real loud, I told him his travel call was terrible. I said the reason I knew that was because that guy said so and he obviously is a real expert. I was pointing at the guy at the time. His wife started laughing and said to him, "Finally, somebody gotcha."