Not Bad For A Preseason Game

I had a double header today.  In a odd bit of scheduling, it was a girls varsity basketball game first followed for a frosh / soph boys basketball game.

The girls game was delayed by some 30 minutes due to some scheduling and administrative snafus.  But things were settled and the game proceeded.  Alas, it wasn't much of a game.  The visiting team, which only was carrying six players, blew out the home team easily.  I've seen the visiting team before.  Most of the players have played varsity since they were freshman and looked to be the savvy veterans while the home team seemed very young and inexperienced.

Thanks to the blowout in the first game, the boys game only started about 10 minutes behind it's scheduled time.  The visiting team was a little deeper and a little more talented but the home team probably had the best player overall.  The visiting team led most of the way and had to withstand a late run by the home team and won by about 8.

From an officiating perspective, there wasn't a lot to write home about with the girls game.  My partner and I called our share of fouls but as the visiting team piled on the points, everything just turned into game management.  While the visiting team did ultimately win by over 40 points, they spent most of the second half walking the ball up and working on their half court offense.

On the other hand, the boys game had a little bit of everything:

1. The home team struggled defensively.  They just couldn't keep their hands off the visiting team.  That resulted in a ton of hand checking fouls.  Fans booked one of my calls when the player placed his hand on the offensive player and never took it off.
2. High school players maybe watch a little too much of the NBA.  After a made basket by the home team, one of the players grabbed the basketball and bounced it to the wall.  My partner called a delay of game warning (the right call).  Later on in the game, another home team player (can't remember if it was the same player) once again grabbed the basketball after a made basket and slapped it to the wall.  Given the game was super close, I was tempted to NOT call a technical foul.  Alas, the visiting team players were aware of the warning issued and I decided to call the technical to the confusion of the fans.
3. One new thing this year in high school basketball is there is a "warning" can be issued to a coach who may be acting out but not to the extent that a technical is necessary.  In the past, warnings were casual and very informal.  This year, the high school rules gave referees the ability to issue a warning to the coach and note the time / quarter this warning was issues in the scorebook.  I did my first warning during the boys game.  My partner made a correct foul call but the home team coach was furious and jumping on the sidelines.  Now, he didn't completely berate my partner.  The coach was just a tad emotional.  After my partner reported the foul, I told the coach that he couldn't act out the way he did on the sideline.  I issued the warning.  The rest of the game was handled without incident.
4. There were a few free throw violations called toward the end of the game.  I even called an offensive player for faking to cause the defender to violate.  I froze for one second as I wasn't exactly how to call it.  I finally just said "free throw violation on white" and moved on.  LOL 

Despite the game being frosh / soph, there were a good number of fans and it made for a very lively pre-season game.   It's these kind of games that made officiating fun.  Unfortunately, not every game will be this competitive.

Looking Ahead To The 2017-2018 Officiating Season

I'm back!  At least for today.  It's a raining day in the Bay Area and I'm watching some NFL game before going out for a bit.  I hadn't look at my blogs in a while.  However Google had sent a note that some of email accounts were going to expire if I didn't log in so I started looking into things again.

It's been a year or so since I posted and several years since I commented on things.  Since I am here,  I might as well update people on things I've been working on personally and what I am looking forward to as the 2017-2018 high school basketball season is kicking into full swing.

If you look through my blog from around 2011-2012 time frame, you may have seen that I curtailed my officiating for a time due to personal life issues.  I admittedly almost LEFT high school officiating.  Thanks to someone in my group, I decided to stick around.

But one thing the person instilled in me was that if I stuck around, I needed to take the attitude of "constant improvement" versus just being satisfied with where I was.

With that attitude in mind, several things I have been working on:

1. A more confident and vocal persona on the floor as an official.  I used to think was a good official just because I could blow the whistle.  However, I realized that I wasn't as confident in my calls INTERNALLY as I could have been.   Confidence means working on getting better angles but also being able to explain calls to players / coaches.  They may not agree with what you see, but if you can explain it, you're much better off. 
2. Using both my left and right arms to signal foul calls.  Since I'm been officiating, I've always used my left arm for foul calls.  I noticed some officials used both arms.  It's taken a couple of years of focusing on this aspect, but it's pretty much natural for me to use both arms when calling fouls depending on the part of the floor I am on. 

As the 2017-2018 season kicks off, I look forward to just being on the floor and working on my game.  As part of constantly improving, I look to just work on little things no matter what level the game is.   I will make an effort to talk about anything I learned on this blog as I did before or maybe through my podcast.

See you all soon!

I'm Back!

Looking at the date of my last blog post, it's been over TWO years since I last published something.   Why did I stop writing?  Like many people, time and focus.  Blogging and writing take some effort to come with the ideas and then put them down in writing.  I just didn't have the energy to focus on it.

However, I return today because I took my blog name ("Behind The Whistle") into podcast form.  I decided I could keep the blog active by posting my podcasts I go along.  Interesting enough, podcasts (at least how I've down them the past two times) probably take MORE time than writing.  But I enjoy being creative and may continue on the podcast route in the short term.

If time and energy permits though, I may be back writing every now and then.

For now, enjoy my podcast:

Behind The Whistle: A Referee Podcast - 12/22/2016

It's All About The Mental Attitude

It's been a while since I posted but I'm back with a brief post tonight.  The past few years have been a frustrating one when it came to officiating.

Due to some personal things, I had decided to take a leave of absence for 2012-2013 season.  It was a difficult decision but the right thing for me to do.  When the 2013-2014 season came around, my original set of personal issues were in the rear view mirror.  However, I had a new set of issues that I had to take into consideration.   I considering taking a second leave of absence but ultimately chose to remain "active" but informed the high school assignors that I would have limited availability.

I managed to work a few games during the early part of the season and even had a game or two in 2014.  I wasn't expecting much more than that.   However, my schedule unexpectedly opened up late January.  I informed my assignors that I would be available to fill in for any games on an emergency basis.  It worked out as I ended up working several games when people had to cancel at the last minute.  I even had two fairly competitive varsity games that I would not have expected.

It was due to one of the varsity games that I realized I still had a love for officiating.  My partner and I went through a a tough game (which I may have blogged about).  It was a grueling affair physically and mentally but I survived it.

Somewhere along this time frame, I had met with a guy from our group for lunch (he is the current vice president).  We had talked about officiating and one thing he said stuck with me:  "If you are going to remain officiating, you need to work on improving all the time or you'll be going backwards".  His question to me was whether or not I was going to make the commitment.

I will admit that officiating had become a bit of an afterthought.  It may have been a mix of my personal stuff or just an attitude I picked up from my friends (some of whom thought I officiated too much).   I was just coasting through my youth games and working whatever high school games I got (some competitive, some not, but they weren't always high level).

After my talk with the other official, I thought about my situation.  Ultimately, I decided to commit to being better.   I worked on little things first (stronger presence, stronger whistle, talking to coaches, among others).  I can't judge how well I did but it was on top of mind for me to just get better.  If I got opportunities to work with better officials, I took advantage of it.

Lastly, my association is running a 3-person officiating camp for a couple of weeks.  The first week has already past.  I had a great time learning and absorbing what I could.  I don't know how I am doing but feel alright though there is room for improvement.

The main lesson is that if you change your mental attitude for things, you can change in positive ways.   This doesn't have to be for officiating!

Reviving The Passion

Just like anything in life, things tend to come and go in cycles.  Something new piques our interest and we go "all in".  Then over time, the new thing becomes boring and we move onto other things.

For me basketball officiating was somewhat like that.  There are two differences though.  Unlike many of my basketball PLAYING friends, I actually have an interest in officiating and like being on the court.  I like getting paid like anyone else but the money is a secondary thing if I can work some good games.

The problem with me is that officiating has always seemed to conflict with LIFE.  My high school officiating career has been one of "starts and stops".  My first year was derailed due to my work schedule.  I finally got a chance to work more games in my second and third years culminating in working a league semi-final playoff game (my highest level game thus far).  But since then, work, personal and family matters have all gotten in the way.

At one point, I was ready to step away from high school officiating.  I was juggling work, playing basketball and personal stuff.  However, after thinking about things, I stuck around this past season (2013-2014).  I didn't work too much until late in the season when I suddenly worked a few tough games.

It was after those games that I realized that "I still had the passion".  After so many years, I'm still a bit raw but I think the ability is there.  I just had to focus.  I met up for lunch with another referee in my group.  He works close by and we talked a few times.  We discussed my future and one thing he said to me was:  "If you're going to officiate, you might as well work on improving.  Treading water actually means you will just get worse".

It was after that time that I made a decision.  I was going to give officiating another shot.  But I wasn't going to "just officiate".  I wanted to put some time into getting better.  Interestingly enough, I think my plan is working.  I haven't done anything magical.  I just tried some different things and talked to folks after games to get feedback.  I'm not perfect.  No one is.  But I think I've grown in the past few months and I really haven't worked all that much.

While my time officiating may be tough next year (still have to contend with work a bit), I am going to enjoy as much of it as I can.  I'm solely focused on improving myself and not worried about the quality of the games.  That will take care of itself.

Cutting The "Rope" Short

It's been a while but getting back into blogging a bit.  Thanks to a discussion I was having with someone, I was inspired to write this post.

Late in the high school season, I was available and picked up a couple of high school games for a fellow referee who had to turn them back.  The first game was not easy but fun and went off relatively smoothly.

The second one was probably the most difficult one I had to deal with in years.  Considering how little I worked this season, I was happy to work a few games.  However, I was not expecting the situation I went into.

Essentially, one of the coaches (home team) was a known complainer.  My partner and I knew each other and I thought we had a good handle on the game.  However, the game was a tough one with a lot of physical play and the home team coach was complaining.  Unfortunately, I personally didn't take care of business and issue a technical which could have mitigated some of the craziness that came later.

Because I didn't, the fans (300 to 500 of them) were booing us and we had to deal with a very negative atmosphere for the rest of the game.  There is a lot more I could talk about but my partner and I agreed things could have gone better.

What I learned from the game is that I need to "shorten" up my rope.  I tend to be low key and let people do their thing with the hope they straighten themselves out.   However, since the game, I have noticed my rope has shortened in both officiating and other things I work with.  If I sense things are not going the way I want to, I take quick action.

Overall, the game in question was tough but it was a good learning experience. :)

NBA Instant Replay

I haven't blogged in a while but a thought occurred to me that I wanted to share.  In high school (and sometimes college), let's say there is a shot by the black team that misses and the white team has is attempting to secure the rebound.  However, a black player fighting for the rebound also makes minor contact with the white player that causes the ball to go out of bounds.

What does an official do in this situation?  A foul call is the easy answer.  However, in marginal foul situations, the official may choose not to call the foul on the black team and just give the ball back to the white team.

Unfortunately, with the NBA's new instant replay situation, that is no longer possible toward the end of the game.  The NBA apologized for a "missed foul call" on Chris Paul toward the end of the Warriors / Clippers game.  The lack of a foul call caused Paul to push the ball out of bounds.  The official had given the ball back to the Clippers but the calls as overturned on the replay.

I'm not sure if the official was trying to do what I suggested above.  Regardless though, using instant replay will prevent officials from making what is fairly smart officiating.  To be fair though, the NBA is a business and I understand why instant replay was needed.

But it does put the NBA officials in the spotlight and magnifies every little error that occurs.  I'm not sure that is a good or bad thing.