Learning the Craft

Being a woman official who wants to achieve varsity status requires an understanding of the unique challenges and dynamics that may not exist in traditional work environments.

A video recently posted on YouTube (see below) featured footage of a high school basketball team committing six fouls in which the videographer accuses the officials of miscalling the fouls.  Like many, he considered any hard foul resulting in the player falling to the court a flagrant foul.  Problem is that such contact is not automatically a flagrant foul; it could be an intentional foul, or it could be just a hard, but ordinary, personal foul. 

The 2011 Summer Evaluation Program will come to an end this week and I feel great about my chances for promotion. When I reflect on all that has transpired to get me to this moment, I think of Coach E, a mentor and friend who began preparing me for SEP from the time I became an official seven years ago. This week marks his birthday, and this blog is my birthday card to him.

Ever since I was assigned a prestigious semi-final match for next week Tuesday, I have been mentally preparing to make it my best performance ever.  SEP Games 9&10 on Tuesday followed by three Boys JV summer league games last night, let me focus on three major areas that I hope to nail by Tuesday:

1) Situational awareness:  players, score, fouls, clock. Know the numbers and the tenor of the game and  manage accordingly. 

2) Communication with coaches and players:  Answer questions, not comments, by coaches and players, politely, firmly and without emotion.  Effective communication here keeps coaches in check and the game moving.

SEP games 7&8 took place June 30th.  I have been mulling over my performance and that of the crew for days, trying to sort through my feelings. My goal at the outset was to merit an "A" performance by game 5-- and sustain that through games 9&10.   Before June 30, I was at an A, but after last week, I took a step backwards and I don't feel really good about it.  Why the set back?    I was the more experienced person on the crew.  I knew that from the time I got the assignment that this was a chance to step up and take care of little details that influence crew performance. I knew what to do and I knew what to expect from the players and coaches and yet, I still fell short.  Why?