sports

For me, anyway.  I will be out of town the next two Saturdays, and then the season concludes.

Two half-court games with 1^st/2^nd-grade boys, then 1^st/2^nd-grade girls. The boys game was very sloppy with lots of fouling, and the girls game was very clean.

In the afternoon I did full-court games of 5^th/6^th-grade boys and 5^th/6^th-grade girls. The girls’ game went well, but the boys again got called for a lot of fouls, only one of which the parents thought was “ticky-tack.” I usually draw more complaints than just one.

The last game of the day featured 7^th/8^th-grade girls. I was done for the day, so I got to watch my niece from the sidelines. She defends very well. If she could sense that she had already beat her defender on the breakaway and drive to the hole, she’d be lethal.

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First, congratulations to Mike Tomlin, youngest coach ever to win a Super Bowl Trophy.  What a class act. I hope he gets to stay in Pittsburgh a long time.

I caught the last three quarters of the game, and I found myself rooting for both Kurt Warner and Santonio Holmes. I’m sure there were bars singing, “Hang on Sloopy” with 36 seconds left in the game.

When Stan Lemon asked me after the game who should get the MVP (before they announced it), I said that James Harrison hands down had the most important play, the interception ran for 100 yards and a touchdown at the end of the first half, but he wouldn’t get it because of his unnecessary roughness penalty, which was so boneheaded and unprofessional that the NFL was right not to give him the trophy.

I understand late hits and the weak Roughing the Passer call on the Cardinals. I understand Holmes using the ball as a prop (yeah it wasn’t called but still). I even understand bowling over the kick holder on the field goal try.  Those are fouls from excitement and lack of thinking. But laying on top of someone, punching them in the sides and not letting them get up…that comes from somewhere else, and it was despicable thuggery.

ESPN was up in arms as to whether the MVP should have been Big Ben. Given Holmes’ runs after the catch and ballet-quality toes in the end zone, and Ben’s pick and only one touchdown, I thought it went to the right guy. Roethlisberger would still be still a better MVP choice than Harrison.

I thought Kurt Warner’s arm was moving forward on the last offensive play for the Cardinals. It was one of those situations where holding the shot in freeze frame can hide what was going on. I’m sorry he didn’t get another ring.  I like watching him play and hope he comes back next year. Kansas City has a good record with aging quarterbacks.

The better team did win, but it was amazing what a 9-7 team peaking at the right time can do. Thank the NFL for the Wild Card.

Two half-courts and two full-courts today. The full-courts were three-manned, but I still had to do some running during the last game.

One of the basketball courts in a building that doubles as the sanctuary for the local Nazarene church. As I was giving instructions for the game, the audience fell silent, and the acoustics which usually make the audience very loud now sounded like someone had slipped me a microphone and hooked it to the P/A system. The last thing I needed was a Frank Drebin moment where a mic was on and I was in the restroom.

During the last game, 7^th and 8^th grade girls, one of the coaches seemed to be convinced that there was a mercy rule where the full-court press should be stopped after the lead became 10 points. I said that I had received no instructions like that from the referee commissioner, and the game played on.

Mercy after 10 points? What was this, softball? 10 points is nothing even in kids’ basketball. The only mercy we’ve done in our league is turn the score off and let the timer go. The rules in Upward basketball are pretty merciful to begin with, with no zone and no double-teaming on defense.

You may have heard last week about the 100-0 beatdown that The Covenant School gave Dallas Academy. The Covenant School has fired their coach because he refused to apologize for running up the score, and they have offered to forfeit the game.

Covenant should not forfeit the game. They won. They shouldn’t lie and say they lost. Unless you have AP and USA/Today polls hanging over you, a win is a win.

Dallas Academy coach Jeremy Civello told The Dallas Morning News that the game turned into a “layup drill,” with the opposing team’s guards waiting to steal the ball and drive to the basket. Covenant scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and “finally eased up when they got to 100 with about four minutes left,” he said.

Dallas Academy has eight girls on its varsity team and about 20 girls in its high school. It is winless over the last four seasons. The academy boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with “learning differences,” such as short attention spans or dyslexia.

Kudos to Dallas for showing up the next day.

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I refereed four basketball games today, two short and two long.

First game was 1^st-2^nd grade boys, which went quite well.

The second game was 3^rd-4^th grade girls. That game was quite chaotic, not because of any foul trouble but because the girls could not set up offenses or defenses to save their lives.  If the ball turned over, they had difficulty realizing which way they needed to go. Compounding the situation were coaches who were yelling themselves hoarse.

Third game was 5^th-6^th grade boys. That game was quite good, and we got the opportunity to man it with three referees.

The last game was 7^th-8^th grade boys, and that was sloppy. Under the basket, they kept slapping arms. Elsewhere, there were mid-court collisions, defenders holding the ball handler after getting beat, failed attempts to poke the ball away, getting the player instead.  It had to be called very tightly, because those kids are of a size that they’ll get hurt if they play the game sloppily.

The Upward Basketball program is back at the in-laws’ church, and I refereed one short- and two full-court games today. I had feared for my legs, because I hadn’t even touched a treadmill since August or September.

Today wasn’t so bad, not only because of the few games, but for two major reasons:

In previous basketball seasons, the full-court press was forbidden, allowing people to get used to dribbling up to the half-court line before setting up a play. While a necessary rule to get beginners used to dribbling and playing in the game, it was harder on the trail referee who had to automatically run to the lead position at the other hoop when the ball changed hands. Now that the full-court press is in, sometimes the ball doesn’t make it back to the other hoop, and the referee runs a little less.

For the last game today we had a luxury: a third official. This meant that the officials didn’t have to actively make sure they were diagonal from each other, and two officials watched for fouls on the breakaways. The lead and trail referees stay on one long side, and the third referee is halfway between them on the other side. Nice work, if you can get it.