IT WAS TWO LONG Months ago that I was in the midst of wrapping up my markedly improved and best school basketball season I’ve ever had; moreover, it was a short 4 weeks ago that I was ready to take the diamond on, dust off my mask, and get ready for some Baseball. Then the NBA shut down. Then McDonald’s didn’t have a place for us to sit down. Refereeing, Referee Rant, was just a small slice of what was cut.
Let’s be real – WE ALL KNEW THIS ISH WAS REAL
WHEN THE NBA STOPPED.
I’ve had sooooooo much time to reflect, as so many other officials have, and the rest of the world has for the past 2 months ago, about it all. I try to compartmentalize the Groundhog Day we’ve all experienced during this time – it reminds me of an experience I had this past season.
The weather was cold and the gym was hot. December. 2019. A lifetime ago. It was probably the beads of sweat, falling in droplet form, when I was officiating a college game with a chipped whistle, after calling a foul while simultaneously playing with my whistle.
WOE. IS. ME.
Both of my partners completed a triangle of a laser focus, when I tried to put air in the whistle, and the sound that should have been sharp and succinct was fainted and muzzled. They were both puzzled, and were now second guessing if I had the chops to be at this level. A time out was called.
They called me to them, instead of the normal position I should be for a full. “What’s up with your whistle?,” one of my partners asked. I didn’t say anything, I showed him the chip that made my Fox 40 hole gape even wider with a new crack.
I got through to half time, faking the funk. I tried my best to hide, as it was hard because I had to blow the whistle a total of 13 times before I could mercilessly go to the locker room.
Sub.
What was important that day was to remember to keep an extra whistle in my pocket so this wouldn’t happen. What was even more important was that I had to be on the fly; improvise; I had to have: INGENUITY.
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
There’s nothing like running a website interwoven with sports, imbuing with the officiating art, all while displaying the art of officiating, when there is none to speak of. It’s challenging. It should be nil. It’s like a whistle cracking on you when calling a foul in the first quarter of a college game. It puts you in a precarious position for you to figure it the f*ck out. I think of all of the hidden benefits that this all presented. It made me spend time with things that I’ve always wanted to do. It got me the hashtag #covidcomeup. It made me embrace and accept all the time I wish I could be going outside, reffing in gyms, being with people I love, and instead, showing that love digitally, virtually connecting more, and remember who I was as a reader, writer, a husband, a father, all in pursuit to be absorb everything in this brain, God Speed.
“Ingenuity, plus courage, plus work, equals miracles.” – Bob Richards
I hope anyone that reads this, that they don’t lose sight of wishing how things could be. I hope officials, coaches, players, are embracing this as an opportunity to experience an adverse situation, that we all are facing, together, as a world, in real time.
I may look crazy right now, in fact I do; yet if I don’t come out of this being a better version of myself then I’ll be damned. I got all this time in the world. How could I not improve? I got to use that ingenuity to push forward. So should you. So should all of us.
“Sometimes, disaster can inspire ingenuity” – Michael Arden
As I write this, in the state of New York, the epicenter of this ubiquitous pandemic, I send love to all of you. Use this time wisely. Use your ingenuity to do something great – whether that be learning a dead language like Latin, mastering a new skill, becoming a 5 star chef, don’t lose sight that as we always say in officiating; we can only control what we can control. Don’t let this pandemic control you. Show your ingenuity. Every negative has an equal positive benefit. Find it.
“In New York, ingenuity goes hand-in-hand with the hustle to survive.”
#Untiltomorrow
