Game Journal - 8.30.08

Dairyland Dolls vs. the Burning River Roller Girls All-Stars

Incident - More and more, I've been feeling like I'm holding pre-bout ref and ref-captain meetings just because, and that there's nothing that is covered that requires a meeting before hand. Nevertheless, I know that that's not true, that it's important to have these.

Comments - I need to be better prepared for these meetings, I should prepare a standard meeting list of bullet-points that I have with me. There's lots of things that always happen that are a pain that could be taken care of, largely game-flow issues, how long half-time will be, what time we start, benches, etc. Preparation is key.

Game Journal - 7.19.08

Dairyland Dolls vs. the Charm City Roller Girls All-Stars

Incident - During the jam, a skater returned to play from the penalty box. When she did so, she entered in front of the entire pack, a clear major, had I seen the whole thing. I know I saw her re-enter in front of everyone and made the call, for the life of me though, even immediately after I couldn't remember if I'd KNOWN she was in the penalty box (and so, would KNOW it was a penalty), or if I just had assumed she was because she was standing still when she stepped in. Of course, standing still is probably a pretty good indication, but I really don't know if I knew or not. Whatever, I made the call. The real issue here is that for the next several laps, half of my concentration was on whether I'd actually seen what I thought I saw, or if I'd just manufactured a major penalty, even though at the moment I made the call I was 100% sure.

Comments - Obviously I need to make the call and move on. This is a basic tenet of my reffing, of any reffing (or, it should be), you're only as good as your next call. Whether or not your last call was right, if you're not paying attention to the game, chances are good your next call will be wrong. I'm ashamed it even took me a lap or two. I know better, it's usually not an issue. I don't know why this one was such a huge issue to me, except that it was also a call that was out and enforced before I even could think about it. As it turns out, one of the referees penalty tracking in the middle saw it too and verified during the intervening thirty seconds that the call was correct. Either way though, time to focus on the next call...

Game Journal - 6.14.08

Dairyland Dolls at WCR All-Stars

Incident - During a markedly physical bout, the Dairyland Dolls jammer, who was fully out of bounds, was blocked into a wall, hard. While the offending blocker was immediately called to the box for the foul, it was just as clear that just as quickly the Madison team felt they needed to take the law into their own hands. Almost immediately a Madison blocker took a knee and dragged her back leg in the path of the Chicago jammer, in what clearly seemed to be an attempted trip. The Chicago player simply stepped over the Madison player's leg and easily broke the pack, though upon further reflection it became clear to me that I should have ejected the Madison player for the attempt, and failing to do so might have allowed for what turned out to be a more violent or physical game from that point on.

Comments - The largest problem in this scenario is that we were reffing the game under a new ruleset. New to both teams and to the ref crew. Personally, I had only had a week to dedicate to focus on learning the differences, which I spent more making sure other refs and skaters knew those changes than I did on my own knowledge. I need to remember to not rest on past knowledge and since this bout have been regularly reviewing the rules to keep up on them, even the less discussed portions of the rules.

On the upside of this my intrinsic understanding of how big plays can effect player's and fans attitude seems to be developing well, and while I didn't anticipate the illegal play, I knew to quickly refocus on the pack once the penalty was issued and be ready for whatever might come.

Game Journal - 5.31.08

Denver Roller Dolls at Dairyland Dolls

Incident - We began having jammer referees reffing for their respective home teams. When Madison's jammer cleared the pack, the second to do so, she was declared lead. The Denver jammer ref then said as he passed me "No,she's not lead!", without any reason for it (to be fair, it's not a lot of time). I assumed he'd seen the Madison jammer foul, and decided I'd defer to Madison's jammer referee to make that call, I hadn't watched her entire pass. After the jam ended I called a timeout and found out Denver's jammer ref had already called lead at the time, and that's why he was saying Madison did not, should not, have lead.

Comment - While I blame myself, as dedicated head referee, for this mistake, I cannot help but feel that I am only partly responsible. Obviously more information would have cleared this problem up, numerous mistakes were made in this jam. But, clearly, this is ultimately about communication, something we can easily work on in a home league setting, but which we get little time to work on or fix during inter-league bouts. Further effort and focus should be made to establish better communication guidelines.

Game Journal - 4.19.08

Dairyland Dolls at Grave Danger

Incident - Due to Seattle's penalty system, I pack reffed Madison in the first half and reffed the Grave Danger in the second half. While my reffing was consistent throughout, I still walked away feeling like I had influenced the outcome of the game.

Comment - I know, academically at the time, and totally now, that I did everything fine in this situation. I discussed calling with their referees before hand to get a handle on the system. During the second period I told the head ref that I was calling a lot of seemingly unexpected penalties, and gave him the option of whether or not to say anything, which he decided not to. But I probably could have mentioned it myself (though, that would arguably have been overstepping my bounds). I suppose I'm still acclimating myself to not always being head ref. I am glad that I at least did not let the skater's reactions convince me to change my reffing, or let any concern I might have had from distracting me from making calls.