Protected: Season In Review: 2010-11

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This made me happy. Maybe to excess.

At the end of tonight’s ref meeting, I wanted to be sure to head up to my assignor and thank him for believing in me this year with the big girls’ assignments and (more notably) the monster playoff assignments.  I didn’t have to do that, however…he came to me first.

“Mister Hamann!!!”  he said.  “They let you out of Seattle!  They didn’t hold you for ransom after those games?”

Nope.  The games actually went well.

A conversation followed about the teams I reffed and which among them were really good.  And I then got to say what I wanted to say:

Thanks for showing faith in me with those assignments.  I had good games for you.

“No problem!  We’ll see you next year!”

I went to shake his hand.  He grabbed it, but took the other hand into a tap-the-back-with-the-left-hand-while-shaking-the-right man-hug.

A man-hug!  An unsolicited man-hug from the assignor!  I interpret that to mean that he was as happy for my assignments and successes as I was.  And that, my friends, means something.  I don’t do this to please others–not coaches, friends, assignors…it’d simply drive me crazy.  But when I do get an accolade from a guy who’s been watching me for four years–an accolade in the form of a few big regular-season games, surprisingly big playoff games, and even a surprise man-hug–well, that’s a fairly big deal.  I was smiling like a doofus the whole drive home.

Playoff-O-Rama

Since last Wednesday, when I learned I’d be doing playoff games this upcoming week, I’ve thought about little else.  Yeah, I’ve got a wife and a son and a baby on the way, and work takes a significant portion of my attention, but I’ve had to promise my wife that I would not spend literally every spare minute talking about  my upcoming assignments, which are unprecedented in my career.  To allow me to keep this promise to my wife, I will instead publish my playoff-related thoughts, in no particular order, here:

–It took me 12 reffing years to get to this milestone.  I think that’s probably a little higher than average, but you know the bit about Abe Lincoln and how long a man’s legs should be.  I won’t kvetch about the time it took.  Besides, a good chunk never get to this level at all.

–Okay, I’ll kvetch just a little.  One friend said that I needed this time to negotiate my way through “the old boy network.”  To be honest, I disagree.  There’s a level at which familiarity and trust are necessary to put someone on a big game, and much of that is built up through time.  So that might look like an “old boy network,” but I don’t really see it that way.  It’s just gaining trust.

–I am quite surprised at the level of playoffs I’m working right out of the gate.  This week, I’ll do an early-round tiny-school boys’ elimination game, a mid-round mid-sized-school girls’ elimination game, and what I think will be two different big-school girls’ games that are the last round before State.  I sort of thought that newbies to playoff games would start with early-round games, probably even non-elimination games (we do most of the tournament double-elimination out here), and since I’ve worked almost exclusively all girls’ games (and no really big boys’ games), that I’d be put exclusively on the girls’ side.  Wrong and wrong.  My assignor says his philosophy is to spread the playoff assignments around among the top couple-dozen officials. It sure as heck looks like he did.

–I’m edified by my colleagues’ reaction to these assignments.  One guy said “You deserve it.  You’ve worked hard.”  And I have, especially with last summer’s Finally Getting My Ass In Shape saga.  I’m convinced I look better on the floor now than I did last season, but I think that the simple fact that I worked so hard to change my body was more instrumental in these playoff assignments than the way I actually looked.  In other words, I think my colleagues were honest-to-goodness impressed at my commitment to get better more than whether I actually did get better.

–Along those lines, I’m learning a little more about how we rank officials in this association.  Part is attendance at meetings, part assignors’ perspectives, part the board, part fellow officials’ rankings, and part the rankings of the top 25 officials.  I learned this because I got a sheet at our meeting yesterday, which is how I learned that I am now a top 25 official.  Cool.  But I also was in a coach’s office once a couple of years back when a coach asked us which officials he should request be named to playoff assignments–he showed us the email.  So, unless my memory is really playing tricks on me, coaches play a role in things too.  And, after four years, most of the coaches on the girls’ side are either glad to see me or comfortable seeing me because at least I am the devil they know rather than my former role as the devil they didn’t know.  So maybe that factored in.

—I have no way or proving this, but I suspect my assignor’s view of me plays more of a role in bumping me up to playoff level than my colleagues’ view of me.  Of course, the two are related:  my assignor has only seen me work a couple of times, mostly at camp, so much of what he knows of me must be from partners’ game reports and asking around.  But as I received some big games this year, I felt like there was major trust being shown, and I think I validated it all.  Plus, he really likes my game reports.  He makes fun of me because they’re so thorough, but I do think he appreciates that I try to do them (and everything else connected with officiating) professionally.

–Three of my four games are out of town:  one is an hour and a half drive, and two (two in one night!) are closer to two-and-a-half hours away.  This means my first-ever-long-distance-travel to do a game…and also, my first significant officiating carpool.  I’ll see what we can do to NOT talk about officiating, since all in all, I think I’ll be so wound up that I’ll appreciate the chance to discuss whatever the hell comes up.

–All of this is kid-in-the-candy-store stuff to me right now.

–There’s only one more milestone after this:  a state tournament appointment.  It’s not time yet.  But the older I get, and the more that people in front of me retire or move on, the better shot I have at one of those.

–I can’t help but think back to the moments in my officiating career when I was most frustrated.  For starters, I thought my career was over with my vocal cord injury back in 2001.  I sat out for 3 years and became an evaluator.  But I missed being on the court too much and decided to come back (quietly).  And my cords got better (although they bug me lately).  And I think back to the million times I was told that I “run wrong.”  The assignor who didn’t know the difference between criticism and ridicule:  he told me I “looked like a turtle.”  The way that I couldn’t seem to work my way up in the old association where I used to live.  I wonder if I’d be a playoff official there now?  I’d like to think I would, but on the other hand, the first impressions I had made on the higher-ups there were obviously not good, and first impressions are tough to get past.  Here, my first impressions were obviously more positive, which may have expedited my rise.  In any event, suffice to say that there were many moments since my first game–the day after Thanksgiving 1996–that I seriously questioned whether this day would come.  Two summers ago, I told my wife I was thinking of hanging them up because I hated the thought of leaving for work before my son awoke and returning from a game after he went to sleep.  She said I liked officiating too much to quit, and besides, officiating is the only damned exercise I ever get–so she and my son have met me for dinner on nearly every officiating day since to ensure that officiating doesn’t mean days where I don’t see my boy.  And as recently as after camp this last summer, I had decided that if I didn’t solve this damned running and appearance issue, I might just throw in the towel.  Who wants to go every year hearing “You’re good at this, but you’re goofy-looking, so you’ll never rise to the next level”?  But I stuck to it, and the personal training seems to have pushed me over the edge.  Or maybe I’d have gotten here anyway.  It’s nearly impossible to tell.  But I’m as proud of this as any non-family thing that’s happened to me in years–because after all of those challenges, I feel a rare sense of hard-earned accomplishment.

–My mindset:  still more excited than nervous.  I take that as a good thing.  But if I’m hyperventilating before the first big one on Wednesday, well, I’ll put my hands on top of my head and try to count to ten…visualizing the good games that got me here.

–And if you’ve been reading this silly little endeavor I’ve been at for six seasons and several hundred games, you helped me get there.  I appreciate you.  Thanks.

Oh frabjous day!

Big, big milestone today!  Got this email from assignor:

“You will have some upcoming playoff games out of town…be sure to prep your wife when you have to pack your bag.”

Wow!  That’s a big deal…and I’d sort of given up hope of that happening, but here it is…my first playoff game!

(Thing is, my schedule is CRAZY these next couple of weeks, but I’ll find a way to make it happen on all but four nights…)

Reaction:  About fifteen seconds of elation…and now the nerves/determination combination sets in…

One way I miss the big city

I moved from a big city to a small city 4 seasons ago, and now is the time of year that I most miss it as a referee.  Teams from all over the region, country, and even continent would travel to the big city to compete in holiday tournaments, so there were more or less always games to be had over my teacher winter break.  Here in the smaller city?  Not so much.  So I tend to lose a little momentum during the break…and also make discernibly less money over the course of the season.

Oh well.   Control what I can control, I guess.

And another…

I promise not to post every time this happens, but…

The big assignment I posted earlier?  The one the I figured was a big test where the assignor would see if I could handle it?  Well, those are currently the top two teams in our big-school girls’ conference, team A and team B.  But team C has a hell of a team too, and I could see them getting involved and even passing either team A or team B between now and then.

I just got an assignment for a few days after The Big One.  It is Another Big One.  Team A and Team C.

This, to me, means that the assignor is not using The Big One as a means to test my readiness.  It means that he has already determined that I am ready.

Or, to put it another way…

Anyway.  The next step:  not effing it up.

Well, looky here.

I have been assigned what looks to be the biggest girls’ game in our biggest conference in a few weeks…one that looks like it’ll be a critical showdown at the top of the standings board.

I’m not going to get too worked up about this, since, to be honest, I like every game and am not one to be like “dude, this game is beneath me.”  But this shows that my assignor’s trust in me is growing.  Exponentially.  I had one big game up in my old home a few years back, but I think this one may be bigger.

It’s in a few weeks, and I won’t specify what day.  But the date is totally circled on my calendar.

To be honest, I think I’ve stumbled out the gate a little bit in some ways–so I’m glad and a little relieved to get this vote of confidence.

Bring it on.

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Protected: That Taste In My Mouth

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On the eve of re-starting…

I’ve got a scrimmage at noon tomorrow.  Yay me.  I was remarking to my wife today that I have never in my life been this excited to start a basketball season.  Even after I took three years off for medical reasons and headed back…well, I didn’t anticipate it as much as I am anticipating this year.

So, as I find the whistles again and get set for the best year in my career (anything short of that will be a disappointment after all the time and effort I’ve put in), I will now review what I said I needed to work on for this year.

1. MENTAL FATIGUE. As it happens, the basketball season coincides with the busiest part of the year in my day job. Add a baby to the mix, and I sort of didn’t get enough sleep. I noticed, especially in December, that I was mentally less than with it on the floor sometimes. I stopped commenting about that in January and February. I don’t think it’s that I was less tired…somehow I adjusted. But, nonetheless, I need to be careful to take care of me a bit more next year–be sure I sleep enough and don’t arrive at the gym tired. It isn’t a good thing.

2. CALLING TOO MUCH AS LEAD. This continues to be an issue. I can’t seem to lay off the call across the paint when I’m lead. I’ve put this down for the past couple of years, and I still need to hold off on those whistles just a bit. This is true on drives and on some rebounds as well…I need to trust my partners on the former and be sure I have a good angle on the latter. I don’t trust the blanket statement I hear that “almost all calls should come from the C and T.” If it happens in my area, and I’m L, and I have a good angle, isn’t that what I have a whistle for? But I do get this feedback often enough that I need to re-commit to this next year.

#1 will be a challenge as long as I have a challenging day job that gets me out of bed early and keeps me operating on all cylinders through the day.  I’ve noticed that I’ve been struggling to get my workouts in as work picked up over the last month or so.  The workouts are important, but they’re also a canary-in-the-coal-mine to signal my workload is getting too great.  I’ll keep an eye out–if I’m not working out, I’ll try to re-focus at work and find stress-reducers there.

#2:  well, I’ll keep my damn eyes in my area.  I need to cross this bad boy off the list of “things to work on” this year.

You can count on hearing about it here.