It’s been awhile since officiating pictures have graced our blog. It’s probably because it has become a bit more challenging to get to Chris’ games. And when we do go, my attention is divided between a girl who wants to do nothing but eat popcorn and a boy who wants to run around and wave at Daddy. Thank goodness the grandparents come with us to games. It’s nice to have a few extra pairs of hands to help out.
Chris’ officiating bucket list includes reffing in a few select and very special gyms around the state as well as reffing for some prestigious events. His ultimate goal, of course, is to officiate a state finals game. I’m certain he will get there one day!
In the meantime, I’d venture to say that the No. 1 venue on his bucket list is the New Castle Fieldhouse. With a seating capacity of more than 9,300, the fieldhouse is the largest high school basketball arena in the world. (In case you don’t know how important basketball is to the state of Indiana, 12 of the top 15 world’s largest high school gyms are located in Indiana.)
Each year, the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame hosts boys’ and girls’ tournaments featuring some of the best teams in the state. This year, Chris was invited to officiate one of the games for the Girls’ Hall of Fame Classic tournament. The two teams in Chris’ game were Princeton (last season’s class 3A champion) and Lebanon. Both were ranked among the top 10 teams in the state, and they each had a high-scoring player looking to break some state records. Put all of this together and you can see that this certainly was the biggest game of Chris’ season!
So of course Chris’ cheering section traveled to New Castle for the game!
The officials were recognized publicly before the game began. Chris received a very nice plaque. The woman presenting it to him was my junior high school principal!
It didn’t seem like there were 2,000-plus fans in such a cavernous arena!
I love watching Chris officiate. He’s very good at what he does, but my opinion doesn’t mean much. I’m so pleased that someone else saw his talent and agreed that he needed to be rewarded with a game like this. I know this isn’t the last “big” game of his career!