Getting my stripes

I’ve been a fan of the game of basketball for, well, as long as I can remember. Growing up in Portland I’ve watched the Trailblazers have some amazing seasons, and some not-so-amazing seasons. They went through the ups and downs like most clubs and are finally coming around and have an amazing team. I started playing in the sixth grade and had (what I remember) a great time. We were an okay team, not as tough as some of the other inner-city teams we played (which were very intimidating) but we still eeked out a few wins. (My brother tells me there is video lurking out there of a few of my games from the eighth grade. I can only imagine what a jumbled circus that team effort looks like!)

High school was a different story. Freshman year we SUCKED. Sucked with all we had. We were slow, had few girls that could really play and were just a mess. As the years went by our teams never got any better. We were lucky to get a win or two out of the season, and I even recall a game that led to fisticuffs. Oh adolescent girls. Such anger!

I thought my basketball days were behind me after high school but the last few years I’ve been spending several days a week watching my niece play. This occupies a lot of my time for a few reasons. One, I LOVE the game. Two, I love watching K play. She’s fun to watch and her game is only getting better. These last couple of seasons I’ve been making comments here and there about becoming a referee and several friends and family have urged me to do so. As with anything that requires me to step outside of the box, I’ve been hesitant in making contact with the local organization, not because I don’t want to do it, but because I have some fear of breaking into new endeavors.

All those fears were cast aside today as I made the necessary contact to learn about the next steps to pursue this dream of mine. I received a return phone call from the man who runs the Portland Basketball Officials Association (PBOA) and he is putting me on his list to make contact with later this summer. I’m so glad I finally made a connection and am eager for the time to come to see if I have what it takes to get my very own whistle! In the meantime, I will be working on my hand signals and body movements to call out errors during game play.

my favorite is travelling

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