The third week of the basketball season, I refereed three consecutive games, including the late girls’ basketball game. That turned out to be a good game. The score was pretty good for 7th and 8th grade girls, 32-30. It was probably the best game I officiated this season, with great athletic aggression but without the sloppiness that leads to a lot of fouls. I had said in a previous post that girls get sloppy and foul at the end; I was pleasantly surprised this time.

The league rules specify a man-on-man (person-on-person, in girls’ lingo :) ) defense all the time, except on break-aways or picks. The illegal defense call is the most difficult call for me to make, primarily because I place a priority on calling fouls to keep kids safe, but also because the way we show kids whom they are supposed to guard is hard for officials to see at certain angles. I actually got some good illegal defense calls in, not because I compared the tell-tale colored bands, but because I saw the actions of the players who were leaving their player to double-team someone else. It’s kind of cool when one picks up a nuance of the game.

Craziest play: We lined up the kids for a single foul shot. Because the kids aren’t usually good enough to make the basket when fouled, they are accustomed to shooting two shots. This was an “and 1″ situation. The ball hit the rim and drops down, caught by a defensive player still in her free-throw spot. She passed the ball to me, who was out of bounds, because she thought I needed the ball. I had to award the ball back to the offense on the baseline.

There is plenty of Law on the court, but not much Gospel and certainly no absolution. :)