Ever heard of referee camp?

Well, I attended it this past weekend. I went up to Ft. Wayne to a big AAU tournament and I paid $25 to officiate 6 games. Talk about a good deal for that tourney. They get refs to pay them to come work their tournament.

I actually learned a ton. It made me excited to ref more in the future. I also got yelled at a lot. I gave 2 technical fouls; my first and second, respectively. On the first play of one game, a defensive player hung on the rim and I didn't "T" him up. My observing official yelled at me. I had lots of people who didn't like me very much. But, for some reason, I kind of thrive under those situations.

I also learned that the referee world is very interesting. I learned that people like power and they do many things to gain that feeling of authority over others. You'd be surprised how much you find that power-seeking drive in basketball officials. I saw it and I wondered if I could do this job without hungering for this same kind of power. We'll see.

For now, I'll just go back to reffing 7th grade girls. Probably won't have to give any technical fouls for hanging on the rim.