Just before Christmas, I had a peer evaluate me at a game in downtown Portland. I had no idea that he was going to do this, nor did I really want him to since it was a hard game to officiate. I felt I had not done a very good job, but surprisingly enough he gave me a score of 88 out of 100. I suppose what you feel inside, the standards you hold yourself to, are nothing like what anyone else does. I personally would have given myself a 70 for the game he saw, but there have been games I would give myself 150 on. It depends on the day, the amount of rest, food, water, ibuprofen….
This week was cool; I had a kid throw-up on the floor at the beginning of a game. We had lined up for free throws and just as the ball was given to the shooter, this boy just tossed his cookies all over the lane! It was all liquids, thank God! I’ve never had this happen before in a game. It turns out he was just really nervous and got the jitters out by throwing-up. I later joked that I should have called a lane violation on him because he wasn’t able to keep his puke inside the free throw lane lines. Well, I know it’s a sick joke.
I’ve been having knee problems lately, my left knee is popping, snapping and crackling. I’m a bit worried I am over doing it with the amount of games, and I have no health insurance to cover injuries. Not smart, but if anyone has any ideas, please leave a comment. I am not inspired lately to write too much, so I’m keeping this short.
Dave
Monday, January 16, 2006
Monday, January 09, 2006
To forgive and learn...
I have had some touching experiences lately on the hardwood. On the weekend, I showed up to a game five minutes late. I am dealing with a first half schedule that is based upon my proximity to my old address since I have now moved to the west side of Portland. When I arrived they had not began the game, how could they, I was working solo. But before the jump ball, I apologized to all of the players standing on the floor waiting to get started. Now these boys were all of eight to ten years old, if that. Some of them said, “It’s okay” but one boy spoke for both teams.
“It’s alright mister, we forgive you.”
I had to catch my breath, he completely astounded me and all of the boys nodded in unison after he had said it. It was the most touching moment I have had on the basketball court and we weren’t even playing the game yet.
So I said, “Thanks guys! Now who’s ready to play some ball?!”
They all cheered and we got it started right then and there. I really felt bad that I had shown up so late, five minutes isn’t a lot, but for me it is completely out of character and I just didn’t want to disappoint those young boys. It’s funny sometimes how kids can just touch your heart without even realizing it. They inspire me sometimes with the way they play their hearts out, with the way they listen to me when I make a call and explain what the right thing is to do.
An example of this is a kid who dribbled with two hands on the ball. After letting it go a couple times, I called it and immediately explained to the boy what to do so that it wouldn’t be called again. That boy promptly learned to dribble with one hand, and in so doing, he started driving to the basket and scoring about four in a row for his team. That is inspiring to see for me.
So let this be a lesson for us all, don’t show up late and make sure to talk to the kids, especially the young ones because they are always willing to listen and forgive. Until next time…
Dave
“It’s alright mister, we forgive you.”
I had to catch my breath, he completely astounded me and all of the boys nodded in unison after he had said it. It was the most touching moment I have had on the basketball court and we weren’t even playing the game yet.
So I said, “Thanks guys! Now who’s ready to play some ball?!”
They all cheered and we got it started right then and there. I really felt bad that I had shown up so late, five minutes isn’t a lot, but for me it is completely out of character and I just didn’t want to disappoint those young boys. It’s funny sometimes how kids can just touch your heart without even realizing it. They inspire me sometimes with the way they play their hearts out, with the way they listen to me when I make a call and explain what the right thing is to do.
An example of this is a kid who dribbled with two hands on the ball. After letting it go a couple times, I called it and immediately explained to the boy what to do so that it wouldn’t be called again. That boy promptly learned to dribble with one hand, and in so doing, he started driving to the basket and scoring about four in a row for his team. That is inspiring to see for me.
So let this be a lesson for us all, don’t show up late and make sure to talk to the kids, especially the young ones because they are always willing to listen and forgive. Until next time…
Dave
Monday, January 02, 2006
3 T's, 2 Days
Christmas has come and gone for me and the rest of us, I hope you all enjoyed it. I did not. I was unable to go home to Canada to visit my family for the holidays. I just recently moved in with a friend in a new town, and I did all this during the Christmas break….some break. At least I had two weeks off from officiating OSAA games, but I am ready to hit the second half of the season with vim and vigor.
An interesting thing occurred just before the break in some games, I handed out three technical fouls in two days. Now I was not at all emotional about any of them either, which for me is a first and a giant accomplishment. It is extremely difficult to not take anything said to you by a coach or player or fan personally, but I assure you with practice it can happen. The game situations where I had to assess the technicals were completely warranted, but I can now understand things from the point of view of the coaches. Before this season, and a huge blowup in the summer at a couple of camps I attended, I had no idea how coaches felt or how I came across on the court in my non-verbal communication. That's a whole other entry though.
I tend to frown on the court, almost scowl at the players when I call a foul or talk to the coaches. Well, now that I had a number of peers talk to me about my demeanor on-court, I realized that I needed to smile more and take what I was doing much less seriously. This doesn’t mean I want to let more fouls get by me, or let the game get out of control, no way. It means that I needed to deal with tense situations much more calmly, and the only way for me to be calm personally is to smile and laugh or joke around with people. When I assessed these T’s to the coaches, I actually put a little humor into them.
The first T was the first half of a freshman girl’s game in downtown Portland, it went against the visiting coach. I had talked with her about walking out onto the court and also about her borderline comments to myself about the way we were calling the game. To be truthful, it was a God-awful mess and no amount of over-officiating was going to clean up what bad players or bad coaching had already achieved. Granted, my partner didn’t know what the hell he was doing out there, but he was trying very hard to learn from me. A couple of bad calls later and the visiting coach came unglued, her 6’3” frame walked out on the court and said something I don’t really remember. I was within six feet of her and proceeded to walk at her, give the T signal and told her to please sit down and be quiet. She continued to fume, I asked her to count to ten and breath deeply and smiled as I said it. This made the assistant coach sitting beside her chuckle and say that she’d handle it, and she did. There wasn’t a peep out of that bench the rest of the game. They always want to test your boundaries.
The second game I gave the T to the home coach, which was a crowd pleaser, but she walked onto the court again like the first one and I popped her for it. I just shook my head and told her, “I told you not to walk onto the court coach, you give me no choice. Merry Christmas.”
The third T was to a kid the following day who swore loudly after a call I had just made against him. I told him Santa wasn’t stopping at his house for that one. The little rat probably still got everything he wanted anyway. My point is, taking anything on the court personally was a mistake I no longer make, and getting worked up over idiotic actions or words from players or coaches is pointless. They are looking for a reaction to get you in trouble so they don’t look like a fool for flying off the handle. I have almost become bored with the things people say to me now, even the crowd because I always have a better zinger to wing back at them. Sometimes I say it too, but most times I just shut up and leave the venting for here. I’m looking forward to a fun second half of the season. Until I write again….
Dave
An interesting thing occurred just before the break in some games, I handed out three technical fouls in two days. Now I was not at all emotional about any of them either, which for me is a first and a giant accomplishment. It is extremely difficult to not take anything said to you by a coach or player or fan personally, but I assure you with practice it can happen. The game situations where I had to assess the technicals were completely warranted, but I can now understand things from the point of view of the coaches. Before this season, and a huge blowup in the summer at a couple of camps I attended, I had no idea how coaches felt or how I came across on the court in my non-verbal communication. That's a whole other entry though.
I tend to frown on the court, almost scowl at the players when I call a foul or talk to the coaches. Well, now that I had a number of peers talk to me about my demeanor on-court, I realized that I needed to smile more and take what I was doing much less seriously. This doesn’t mean I want to let more fouls get by me, or let the game get out of control, no way. It means that I needed to deal with tense situations much more calmly, and the only way for me to be calm personally is to smile and laugh or joke around with people. When I assessed these T’s to the coaches, I actually put a little humor into them.
The first T was the first half of a freshman girl’s game in downtown Portland, it went against the visiting coach. I had talked with her about walking out onto the court and also about her borderline comments to myself about the way we were calling the game. To be truthful, it was a God-awful mess and no amount of over-officiating was going to clean up what bad players or bad coaching had already achieved. Granted, my partner didn’t know what the hell he was doing out there, but he was trying very hard to learn from me. A couple of bad calls later and the visiting coach came unglued, her 6’3” frame walked out on the court and said something I don’t really remember. I was within six feet of her and proceeded to walk at her, give the T signal and told her to please sit down and be quiet. She continued to fume, I asked her to count to ten and breath deeply and smiled as I said it. This made the assistant coach sitting beside her chuckle and say that she’d handle it, and she did. There wasn’t a peep out of that bench the rest of the game. They always want to test your boundaries.
The second game I gave the T to the home coach, which was a crowd pleaser, but she walked onto the court again like the first one and I popped her for it. I just shook my head and told her, “I told you not to walk onto the court coach, you give me no choice. Merry Christmas.”
The third T was to a kid the following day who swore loudly after a call I had just made against him. I told him Santa wasn’t stopping at his house for that one. The little rat probably still got everything he wanted anyway. My point is, taking anything on the court personally was a mistake I no longer make, and getting worked up over idiotic actions or words from players or coaches is pointless. They are looking for a reaction to get you in trouble so they don’t look like a fool for flying off the handle. I have almost become bored with the things people say to me now, even the crowd because I always have a better zinger to wing back at them. Sometimes I say it too, but most times I just shut up and leave the venting for here. I’m looking forward to a fun second half of the season. Until I write again….
Dave
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)