I refereed four basketball games today, two short-court (half-court, sideways) and two full court. I’m not hurting too much, surprising since I hadn’t worked out for weeks. We’ll see tomorrow.

The weirdest incident was during a game of first and second graders on a half-court. A team was supposed to inbound the ball, but nobody on the team was going to the other official who had the ball. Basketball rules normally state that when there’s a team delay, the referee is to sit the ball down, count five seconds, and if nothing happens, turn the ball over to the other team. Of course, these were first and second graders who were just learning the game, and if they were confused at the time, they would have been even more confused should the referees actually do their jobs. :) We tried to explain what was going on, but because the gym was so loud and the game awareness just wasn’t there, we must have blown about 45 seconds of playing time. There are no timeouts in this league. I told the other referee that if this team wasn’t going to get out of its funk, turn the ball over and let the other team go for it. The other ref had a little more forgiveness than I did. :)

The second weirdest occurred on a full-court game of 7th and 8th graders. I was in trail position in the bottom left corner of that diagram, when the ball turned over on a fast break, and I had to get back. The kid was insistent on beating me back and tried to shoot the ball behind me. There was a reason, though, that I slowed down; I knew where the baseline was. The boy’s shot went sailing behind the basket, and he landed in the unoccupied seats. Whoops. :)