It's been way too long since my last post and I will be writing more often this next season. But first a quick recap of last season.
Spring Scrimmage
I received an offer to apply for a PAC-12 officiating position and, of course, I applied. To my surprise I was extended an invitation to work a spring scrimmage at Stanford. I had no expectation that I would be picked and when the email arrived, I was very surprised.
Originally I was assigned to scrimmages as a Deep official. Somehow the feedback on me was I was a deep guy. That is the last thing I am. Luckily, they made some adjustments and moved be back to umpire but I was assigned only one scrimmage.
This was not an evaluation scrimmage. None of the coordinators from the other conferences were there which was rather frustrating. But we were told we were invited because they 'know' who we are and that we are on the radar. What that turns out to mean I really can't say.
For me this was exciting. There were nine of us working, six of which were already D1 guys in other conferences. Some had worked Bowl games.
This was a full contact scrimmage with players still fighting for starting positions. It was real football. They ran somewhere around 60 plays and I worked all but 12. This was by far the best scrimmage I have ever worked. I picked up some new techniques from an Umpire worked a Bowl game last season and incorporated these into my game.
High School
I became a Crew Chief last season. This means I am the Referee (White Hat) and have a group of guys I assign games to. I am the boss on the field and the guy everyone one looks to when thing go bad. My crew had a few mishaps but nothing major.
I worked all three rounds of playoff including the CIF Central Coast Section Division IV Championship game. For our local area this was the biggest game in twenty-five years and the biggest game of my football career. Around 8,000 people in attendance, televised, and hyped for a week on the radio. I worked Umpire during this game. Mostly a clean and simple game to officiate. Two interesting plays I'll outline next post.
College
During the first game of the season I was briefly knocked out by a player. It was late in the forth quarter and a receiver drove his shoulder directly into the side of my head. I don't recall hitting the ground, but it was bad enough the medical guys game out to check on me. I went out for a few plays and the doctor asked if I knew where I was. I told where I was and what the score was. I went back in and finished the game.
I did work a post-season bowl game - the Capital City Bowl in Sacramento. I always welcome another chance to work a game, but at the end it degraded into a shoving match. Fifty minutes of great football tainted by poor-sports and player who cannot win with grace.
Sabercats (Arena)
Last spring I worked on the chain crew during the San Jose Sabercat games. This is a lot of fun and a lot of work. I explain more of this in a subsequent post.
A quick-and-dirty recap of last years football season.
A lot of new rules this coming season so there will be plenty to talk about.
