States - follow up

On Monday, I drove to Arundel High School in Gambrills, MD, to attend the 3A semifinals.  I was assigned to sit at the scorekeepers table, taking stats, making sure there were no issues with the clock, time the timeouts, and count down the ends of the half on the field for the lead ref.  It doesn't sound like a lot as compared to actually running the game and making calls and relatively speaking, it's not.  But I was definitely busy.

The first game was Blake vs. Northern.  As it turns out, the woman who shares a cube wall with me at work is good friends with Blake's coach.  So she came to the game.  That was cool to see her there.  The two officials running the game are from my officiating Board, the Baltimore Board of Women's Sports (BBOWS), and the one official and I trained together for both lacrosse and field hockey.  We've known each other 10 years now!  The other ref and I have worked games together before, and the three of us had a good time officiating this game.  It was a nice relaxed atmosphere, but it would have been anyway, even if the game wasn't a snoozer.  The scorekeepers from each of the schools were boys + their friends, and they were all sharing out of the same Old Bay fries basket one of them had bought.  Boys will be boys, I thought.

The second game was Hereford vs. Mt. Hebron, two traditionally strong field hockey schools.  So I expected a fast and furious game.  It certainly started out that way, and then Hereford just broke it open.  Although Hebron eventually scored, the game was pretty lopsided.  It's clear that Hereford's turf field has allowed Hereford to take their game to another level.  The scorekeepers for this game were all girls + their friends.  And they were sharing lolipops.  I commented that what they were doing was good for the swine flu, and they all just shrugged it off.  Girls will be girls, I thought. 

The on field officials for this game were from the Anne Arundel County board, one of them being the infamous Sue Diff.  Now I have most certainly heard of Sue Diff, notorious as a lacrosse ref (and I think college assignor?), but never had an opportunity to work with her.  I've heard stories (good and bad), and the woman is just a legend.  So here I was, faced with having to work with Sue Diff at a state semifinal game.  She's never heard of me, and I'm just... sitting back and saying nothing because I have heard that I want no parts of being on her bad (as opposed to good) radar. 

The game started, all was normal.  The first half ended, no issues.  That's when my first "Sue Diff" story happened for me.  Sue came to me and said, "Go tell the announcer that the foul is not called "raised ball".  It's "Dangerous".  Not all raised balls are dangerous." 

::blink:: 

She's serious.  And she's not even complaining about the other names for fouls that aren't correct either... just the "raised ball" one.  I mean, if it matters to you what it is the announcer is saying, then why not correct the others, too??  Needless to say, I was confused about that, but whatever.  She made it clear that I had to go tell him.

Good thing it was a 10 minute halftime because I had to trek all the way around the stadium to get to him to tell him.  He got it right for the rest of the game, though I think I caught a sense of sarcasm whenever he'd say it, not that I blame him. 

The second half began, and all was going well until Sue Diff stopped the game.  It was clear she was going to card someone.  Side note: I wouldn't have pulled out cards for that foul, but I am averse to using cards.  I feel like I can handle the situation without the need for cards.

Anyway, Sue Diff goes to pull out her cards.  She hunted for them, couldn't find them.  Game was restarted.  When she had a free moment near the scorers table, she called me over to her.

"Do you have your cards?" 

"Yeah!" 

"Can I borrow them?"

I rushed off to get them out of my bag and handed them to her. 

There it was.  The great Sue Diff didn't have her cards.  Hilarious!!!

One of the state athletic administrators saw the whole thing, and couldn't wait to give Sue all sorts of grief for it.  He also said to me, "Don't you say a word or you'll never see another Varsity game again in this state!"  To which I replied,

"Good thing I'm not a part of her officiating board and that I'm not a lacrosse official!" 

So now I have a Sue Diff story of my very own.