HS spring league starts this Sunday. I have two girls games, then two boys games and one girls game the following Sunday. Two weeks after that, I get to start the girls HS league that Juulie is scheduling.

Since I haven't worked any games since March, I have a regimen I follow to get the rust off. It consists of heavy stretching and lots of meds.

I'll let you know how many coaches I toss this week, er, I mean, how the games go.

Mark -- What HS spring league are you working that starts this weekend? Can I get in on any of it?

Mark: I know how you feel. I have 2 AAU games tomorrow and these will be the first since January. I was working out of town most of the regular season and worked a total of 4 games all season. Good thing I have been doing some running the past month.

It's the Beaverton Hoop and, as you know very well, this means you have to be on Duilio's list. Sorry. BTW - did you ever talk to Robbie Fenk and find out why he never returned my inquiries about his league? Are you still reffing for him?

Does Duilio not like Juules? :(

Of course that's not the situation. How could anyone not like Juulie? :)

Duilio runs a program called Peaceful + Recreational Basketball. It's an adult league that is huge. He rents court space at the Beaverton Hoop for his adult games and has his own list of refs that contract with his organization to ref his games regardless of venue. This league literally has hundreds of teams and they play all over the area all year round.

The Hoop asked him if he could provide refs for their youth games. He said yes and has done so for the past year. In order to get these games, you must commit to him that you will work his adult league all year long. This is a huge committment.

I am the only exception to this policy. I guess I'm "special". When he took over the Hoop scheduling, I had been working there for quite a few years. Many of his refs had little or no experience in youth games, although a few are experienced HS officials. He wanted someone to "stay on" and set an example for the guys who never worked youth games. The Hoop recommended me and that's how I got to continue there.

I'm sure Juulie can speak for herself (she always has) but it's my impression that her schedule wouldn't allow her to commit to his program.

I would imagine not, with her current varsity schedule growing and growing! :)

Seems like the guy loses an opportunity to use some quality officials, with that type of constraints.

Perhaps - but understand his situation. This is a business for him and he has to have his refs give him their first committment for time. It's hard enough finding the quantity of officials he needs, let alone putting himself in a situation where he has to scramble to fill a ref schedule. I'm still amazed at his ability to run this league. Compared to the rec league I schedule for, his league is about 20 times bigger and goes 12 months. Plus - he has to advertise and recruit all his teams, manage the money, the website and the booking of all the venues.

Yes, it's the PBOA schedule that's the catch. Howard requires "all or nothing". I've heard rumors about a few people who manage to work around this, but I'm not willing to get on Howard's bad side. PBOA is definitely my path into the future. Duilio did tell me that if I could find someone to job-share a schedule with, he'd be willing to work with me. My co-worker would take the schedule during the season, and in June when there's so muych good varsity ball, and I could do it the rest of the year. But I haven't found anyone who would do this. Oh, well.

I wroked two AAU games tonight, my first time on the floor since the states. 12U game was uneventful. But the 14U game was a thiller.

Two teams were very evenly matched and very strong. White #33 went the length of the floor in 5.8 seconds to knock down a jumper to force OT at 55 each way. Blue jumps out early in the OT, and they're up 64-62 when I get #44 for a foul. She doesn't like it and slams the ball against the floor and down the court. Yep, she got whacked, which was also her 5th. So now White has the mo and goes up 65-64. The next couple of trips no one scores until my partner gets white for a foul, which changes the mo again. Blue ends up winning 78-72.

Good times. 4 more tomorrow. :)

They'll probably all suck! ;)

I think the ratio of decent games to sh1t games in AAU is at best 4:1 - ya gotta suffer through four dogs for 1 good one. Yesterday I had a great 15U boys AAU game, 2 good teams from the same upstate NY area that drove about 150 miles to play, both great coaches, maybe the best game I've ever seen at this age group. Today I have three 17U and I'm keeping my fingers crossed! :)

BALL! BALL! BALL!! BALL!! BALL!!! BALL!!! :(


Not bad today. I think the worst game was probably a 20 point difference. I'm think I'm done until November.

Dan: I know the feeling. I had two G-12 games (all 4 teams were from MD.) on Saturday. Both were blowouts. The 2nd. game was a 45 point margin at one point and wound up something like 35 point difference. 3 of 4 coaches were pretty good -- the 4th coach got a little present. Whack!