Hey all,
hope you had a good weekend (to my 9 visitors 
.
For the past 5 years, I have refereed a street hockey tournament. Traditionally, ref’s have been hated. Referees/linesmen/umpires have all been the target of sports fans since…organized sports began. One wrong call can easily make you public enemy number one in one town, while leading you to a ticker tape parade in the other town.
So with that said, this last weekend was probably the best one I had as a referee. Things went smoothly, nobody talked back. There was only one match that got a little heated and I did a record (for me anyways), out of 15 possible games/spots, I did 10 games and I did 7 in a row.
I’ve had a few rough patches over the years as a ref. I’ve made a few bad calls (or in one case, not making a call). Only once did I have a player yell at me. In my defence, it was my third game in a row with no water (this year I thought ahead and had several bottles with me). All in all, good year.
When there’s only one ref out, there’s only so much that he/she can see. And it’s very tempting to grab people off the court and yell at them. Actually, that’s only happened once during my first year (the tournament I ref is for charity, wacky costumes are encouraged which usually brings out the hecklers).
All-in-all, good year. And that’s why I didn’t post over the weekend. That and I was sick.