Good start to the season
 

If the rest of the season goes like my opener, I will regret not taking more games this year. For JV girls it was well played, well coached, exciting, and the crowd was even polite.

Home team trailed from the tip, only to take a lead with about 30 seconds to go. After trading turnovers, V1 steals a pass at mid court, drives for the winning basket with H1 step by step beside her, and pushes off with her forearm as she shoots the layup. Easy PC foul for me. Only 0.8 seconds on the clock after my whistle. I don't know if I sold it really well, or it was clear as day what happened, but there wasn't much grumbling from the crowd or coaches.

I'm not sure I want to have that kind of call to end every game, but to nail one like that in the opener has me fired up.

I hope it goes well for the rest of you!

My HS season starts tonight, also JVG. Should be a decent game.

Our high school season starts next week...but two conferences moved their junior high to the fall, so a lot of us have been doing those games.

And, I'll admit to being a little nervous about the start of high school...as a fifth year guy I'm wondering if this is normal...

Nothing wrong with being nervous, something wrong with showing it. ;)

Game one is next Tuesday for me, in a brand new high school that's that talk of the state (except they haven't completely figured out the geothermal system, and it can be pretty chilly in the building). No matter, we'll be moving, and the new floor is nice and spacious.

Congrats Hartsy! Hope you have a good rest of the season.

My season also starts next Tues.

I look forward to the stomach butterflies!

Let's get it on!

bainsey Versus The Volcano (With Apologies To Tom Hanks) ...
 

Just make sure that you have an exit strategy in case the volcano erupts.

Already a month into the season. It's going too fast!

When do you finish, Feb or March?

District play winds down in Feb then playoffs, regionals, state finals. Girls started a week before boys. I'm still getting used to starting so early. Right now it's still tourney time and non-district play.

It must begin sometime.
 

My season started on Tuesday the 27th. It was a AAA GV (the highest class in VA). GIGDGO!! The final score was 63 - 4.

Ouch!
 

Good to hear from you Leonard! My games start next week.

My fourth game of the yr is the GV team I did last yr that won 105-14. One of the dads who's daughter is a senior on that team this yr tells me they're better than last year (gulp). I have them in two weeks........

Hope you have a great rest of the season!

PS - we (Nats) got us a Center Fielder! :)

4 games in -- another tonight and another tomorrow. First 6 games of the season are BV.

This is my last season working girls games -- we get contracted out over a year in advance and I decided after last season to only take boys games going forward. Will probably drop from 50+ to 30-35 or so games next year, but that's something that I wanted anyway.

Why the drop? Will certain assignors stop using you because you won't take girls games?

I believe where Rich works, there are a lot of schools that have double headers (B/G V) and officials are contracted to work both (rural schools). Refusing to work one side means you don't work at that school (or in that conference).

I quite Jealous of all of the Forum Members: No Games For You...
I am recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery. I can only watch.
I start my P.T. today. I have been in pain since late September. Very bad arthritis. I might be able to do grade school games in late Jan or Feb. or
I might have to hang up the whistle. My next step, if the knee acts up again
is...wait for it... Knee replacement surgery hooray!:eek:

Mrcrash3 - many of us here have had medical issues over the years, and specifically knee surgery, and have made successful comebacks (me included).

I wish you a full and speedy recovery.

Good luck.

Actually, we have no doubleheaders. Commissioners typically assign both the boys and girls sides here -- we have no association or central assignor.

(If there were DHes here, it would have to be JV/V DHes and that simply doesn't happen either. We drove over an hour to our game and the home school hires FR/JV guys directly and usually find local guys who get licensed but have no desire to work anything but FR/JV games at the local schools. Last night there were freshman and JV games going on when I arrived. Both freshman officials wore Adidas wind pants and white sneakers with Byron collar shirts. One of the JV officials wore a Byron collar shirt. Amazing.)

If I get 8 games from a commissioner (4GV / 4BV), I'll just get the 4BV from that assignor. And there will be one or two that will say that I need to work both or get none -- and that's OK.

So I expect things to drop in half -- the one upside is that I'll be open and available to take games on off days -- I'm frequently asked to fill-in and people are always looking for replacements. Now I'll be available more often and will be able to choose what I work those dates.

Main thing for me is I simply don't enjoy the girls games, for various reasons. And with me working 120 baseball games a year (HS/college/LL/summer) and HS/college football, something had to give. I'll let you know if I regret this decision next season.

That said, I'm feeling about as fresh I can right now and I only had a week off between football and basketball. Talk to me in February. :D

That is so true. I went to high school in Wisconsin and my social studies teacher called about 75% of my JV games. Never thought anything about it at the time. However now that I am reffing and out of the area I find it hard to believe that system is in place.

Around here lower level games are the starting point to most careers. How do the young guys get there start in Wisconsin?

They move to Southern California and work college games right away. :D

Actually, the small percentage that want to get good typically work hard, network through an association, and work varsity games pretty quickly.

If I wanted to never drive more than 10 minutes, I could probably work every FR and JV game at the closest two or three schools. And be out of there by 7PM every night.

Forgive me for trying to hijack the thread.
 

So who did you (Nats) pick up? Where's BH going to switch to, LF or RF?

Have fun in your blow out game.

"pop"
 

First game will be Thursday after feeling a "pop" in my calf during a scrimmage about 10 days ago (my wife had a lot of fun laughing at me limping around the house that night). Then a double header the next day.

Be careful here. I had this once and it required rest. Good luck.

Harper will most probably go to left.