Freshman Coaches

I just got home from a great freshman tournament championship game. As with most freshmen level games, it wasn't smooth and plenty of miscues on both sides. However, the game went into overtime (on a buzzer beating 3 pointer) and the final score was 40-38.

Despite the good game, there were things that I thought could have gone better (in my opinion):

1. Early on, there was a lot of hand checking which I let a few obvious ones slide. I should have gotten those earlier and things might have been a little cleaner during the game.
2. Coaches box: One of the coaches was on the court and out of the box very often during the game. I warned the coach to stay in the box but never followed through as the game really demanded our attention. Yet, I was aware of it and in retrospect I should have enforced it.
3. The same coach that was out of box was vocal throughout the game. The issue which the freshman coaches is they tend to harp on a lot of things and you have to pick and choose what you want to hear.
   

All in all, it was a good game but administrative stuff could have been taken care of better.

Balancing your job and officiating

Wow, it's been a month or so since I last posted. Since then, my basketball officiating has gone into "high gear" (or about as high as it can get for someone like me). I had a busy slate about three weeks ago when I officiated four out of the seven days in the week between youth and high school games. Since then, I've had a sporadic schedule since then.

My high school officiating schedule is a little sparse due to my job. I typically start work at 8:30 AM and leave around 5:30 PM (give or take). We have a little flexibility because my job is supporting a sales team and typically thing slow down by late afternoon.

When this high school season rolled around, I specifically requested that I be given games that started after 5 PM so I don't have to leave my job early. Having some limitations doesn't endure you to your assignors. However, at the end of the day, your full time job is more important than officiating more games.

So even though I've been able to work some games around my job, balancing the two is tough. Sometimes you might have a tough day at work and you wish you didn't have to officiate after work. However, I always give my best and in many ways, officiating is a good release after a long day at work.

In many ways, while my high school officiating is a little sparse, I like it that way. I'm not one of those guys who can officiate seven days a week without a break. I like to take some down time to refresh and energize myself.