Background

Just thought I should provide a little background on myself. I'm 20 years old and a college student. I started officiating when I was about 16 at my local YMCA, and I continued with that until I left last year. My real goal was to work high school ball, so as soon as I graduated from high school in June 2007, I signed right up for the local high school association. I entered into the association in September 2007 and began work at the Freshman/JV level. This past year I was one of the senior members of the Probationary (Frosh/JV) officiating class, and I helped out with some mentoring and/or minor instruction on the side. I'm angling for a promotion to Varsity status this year and aim to strut my stuff during summer league.

As a full time college student, I support myself solely through officiating. I work for two different officiating companies in addition to the HS association. One is primarily focused on adult leagues during the week, with some youth leagues thrown in. The other is entirely youth league, and only runs on the weekend. Between the two I make enough money to survive, but I also get to practice my mechanics and stay in shape year round which is an enormous benefit. I'm also doing something I love, which also comes with enormous benefits.

As for the meaning of my blog's title? During the game there are really three teams on the floor, the two competing teams and the officiating crew. In order for the first two teams to have a good game, the third teams has to have a good game as well. (More on that later...)