I’m coaching this spring. My HS senior daughter, who is going to college to play softball (but doesn’t play HS softball, long story) and I are coaching a middle school softball team together.

On paper, I am the head coach and she’s the volunteer assistant, but to be honest, she runs an amazing practice for 6th to 8th grade girls and has some really good drills she’s learned to help them improve quickly.

She also commands their attention. When she helped coach a 14U team for her club last spring, she seemed a bit timid and deferential to the adult coach she was assisting. No problems with that when coaching with Dad. She’s in charge, I’m along for the ride. I’m fine with that – I just enjoy taking a few minutes watching her do her thing…and then I remember I need to coach, too and get back to it.

Coaching is hard work. We’re not playing that many dates, so we only scheduled 3 practices for this week and, well, I hate to admit it but I was exhausted in the evenings after practice. It had been a whirlwind 10 days prior to Monday’s first practice, and I am thankful for a night off now. Coaches work hard and none at the youth or HS level do it for the money — cause there isn’t much in the first place.

So, about those whirlwind 10 days…

I was absolutely floored when I got a call on March 1 to officiate at the Kohl Center at the boys state tournament. I really didn’t see it coming and I was already very happy with the season I worked. I did about 40 games, about half boys and half girls, and I thought my season would end at the boys sectional semifinal level on March 9.

Getting a sectional assignment is not something I’ve taken for granted — those games are always a crazy atmosphere and teams are either 1 or 2 wins from the state tournament, so there’s a lot on the line.

Turns out my boys sectional not only was a big game, it would be the only time I officiated with the crew I’d work with the following week at the Kohl Center. And from the opening tip, it felt like we had worked together many times.

Working basketball with unfamiliar partners means you really need to understand primary and secondary coverage areas and have a similar philosophy on what you’re going to call and not call. Officiating basketball is difficult primarily because “not all contact is a foul.” There are some automatic fouls on ball-handlers, but otherwise basketball is officiated by what we used to refer to as the Tower Principle, named after longtime official and rules editor Oswald Tower. Tower’s Principle was that fouls should be called when there is contact that puts an opponent at a disadvantage. Sounds easy enough, but in practice, it’s way more art than science.

But that night we all applied that principle pretty much the same way, which is what anyone wants from any game. We finished that game, made plans to meet the following week in Madison, and drove home in a snowstorm.

We were assigned the last game on Thursday night, a Division 4 semifinal. Honestly, it doesn’t matter which game you get – it’s an honor to get to officiate ANY of those games. Only 45 officials get to work that tournament each year, and I would never take such an assignment for granted.

And we had a blast doing it. I have some great pictures, including my favorite, which was taken by my wife just after I tossed the opening jump.

That picture was ordered as a 16×20 print and will go up in my home office next to the picture of our crew from our Officials’ Liaison that arrived yesterday in the mail. Great memory, stayed out of trouble, let the kids show off their talents. Went to the games on Friday as a spectator, but by Saturday morning I was exhausted, so I drove home and watched all the championships on TV.

And the next day went on vacation to two cities I’d never been to. Sioux Falls, SD, and Fargo, ND. Perhaps a week in the Dakotas in March wasn’t as well thought out as possible as it was cold and we saw some snow, but we had a good time and met some very friendly people and got back just in time to start softball practice on Monday afternoon.

I think I’ll enjoy the spring doing something different. I enjoyed some success umpiring over the years, but of all the seasons, I think I enjoyed the spring season working baseball the least. I haven’t umpired regularly in 5 years now, and I think next year I will simply not license for any spring sport. I’ll likely be spending more time watching Casey play her spring college schedule — they play about 60 games in the spring — and thankfully they livestream almost all of them now.

Also, still assigning as a conference commissioner, the spring is the toughest season with weather issues. Due to our 18 game conference schedule, we have to start softball in the last week of March and, well, we didn’t get many games in this week. So we’re already adding to the schedule later in the year in a time when finding umpires is already difficult. I am happy that the team Casey and I are coaching (a middle school team) has another week before our first games.

I’ll be back officiating in the fall. I still enjoy officiating football and basketball, all my best friends are [still] officials (thanks to retired NFL referee Jerry Markbreit for that quote that I love), and I’m not ready to give that all up. Someday I will, but not just yet….