and onward we go

is the URL of this blog still accurate?  I'm beginning my fifth year of officiating, but there are definitely times I feel like a baby ref.

There were four referees at scrimmage last night, so I took a half as sole OPR.  Was told to keep an eye out for the new metric on back blocks.  Only saw one that was suspect, but I was too far away to see exactly where contact was made.

It was nice to OPR; I haven't done it since...geez, since the Cup, I think.  Got me working different skating skills, different things to watch, got me warmed up in the (barely heated) practice space nicely.

Buying new knee pads.  The ones I have are old old old (I think I got them while I was still playing) and are quite bulky.  I'm going to go with 187 Pro Derby.  Hopefully they'll work; I want something slimmer, but since I'm ancient and my knees are even ancienter, I need something with a lot of protection.  But as a referee, I don't necessarily fall as much.

heh

two more resolutions/things to work on this season:

1. speed - specifically, dead-stop-to-sprinting.  I got smoked a few times last night when I was JRing
2. not getting high-pitched and shrieky when trying to be loud.  HRed the second half of scrimmage and could feel myself getting that way, but I think I corrected it pretty well
3. "Illegal Location" is not a penalty verbal cue

2019 LET'S DO THIS

First scrimmage of the year is tonight, hooray and yahoo! (I should probably make sure my stripes are clean.)

JRing a game in Buffalo on Saturday.  Not having to worry about jammer lap points really frees up brain space for other things, I've discovered.