I am still astounded at the number of hits and direct e-mail s I have gotten the last few months, so it is pretty cool that what I am doing here is actually helping someone. I have gotten e-mails from several brand new officials, so I am guessing that others who are silent are out there, too.
My first year was interesting. I reffed intramurals at college and was considered "good". I did all the playoff and championship games. Big head. After I finished my Master's at night, I had some time, and was asked to ref high school games. I agreed as long as I was not stuck with HS girls' freshman games. Again, pretty arrogant, but off I went.
"Training" was a joke. A "veteran" official with no real personality or aggressiveness on the court would lecture for about 10 minutes after meeting. That's it. They then asked for volunteers to go do an intrasquad game, so I jumped.
Rode up to the game with 2 vets, one was a varsity guy, the other was a perpetual varsity wannabe guy. In retrospect, they were both big time, just ask them, and they loved to hear themselves talk. I got quite the load of war stories heading up.
Game started, and I was told to watch and learn. Then, they put me in there. Varsity boys, hothead coach. I got creamed. I was not positioned right. I was not signaling right. I was missing a lot of stuff because I was worrying about positioning and signals. Coach was screaming about me. It was embarrassing.
Post-game, direct quote: "You have no idea what the f%^k you're doing out there, do you know that? You're not even close to being ready to do games!" I got ripped all the way home, for about 35 minutes. I think the one guy was upset because the coach was pissy. It was a nightmare. Got home, called my "mentor" who got me into this, and told him I was done.
My mentor told me to chill out, and informed me that I was not quitting. He told me that I would be working Varsity games during my third year of officiating. He wound up being 100% correct, although I would have bet a testicle against that at the time. I could have been Ol' One-Ball Jackson. Seriously.
"Pick one thing per game, focus on it, master it, and move on." Great advice. Next game out, I vowed to put my arm straight up with a hand or fist on every whistle. That was it. Cared about little else. Felt good about it.
Game number 2, stand up straight when I signaled travel which I called a lot). Other examples: Go super slow reporting at table, beat the ball down the floor as new lead, only signal on my lines for OOB, don't call across key as lead, call only very obvious travels...The list is endless. I still do it. Last night, it was "do not get distracted by player reactions (grunting/groaning/profanity) to the point that you worry more about game management than balls and strikes".
February of that year,I get assigned a freshman/JV doubleheader. I had 64 games since the intrasquad game. That was 64 things I had tried to work on. Guess who my Varsity guy was? He watches a half of our JV game, and proceeds to absolutely rip my partner, who had transferred to Tri-Cities with 10 years experience in other states. "Got anything for me, God?" I asked. (His name was not really God, just changed to protect the jackass.) "George, no. I cannot believe how far you've come already. I really have nothing to tell you. I don't believe it."
Two years later, I was working Varsity games. Four years later, I was working college basketball games. Five years later, I had passed both of those guys by quite a margin. To be fair, both of those guys were cool with me as I ascended. But I never forgot how they treated me, and never did that to anyone else.
New guys, pick one thing each game to fix, fix it, and keep it fixed. Doesn't make many games to make a massive overall improvement. Believe me, it happens.
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