The Ref: WSU Team Camp Blog Final
By Josh Davis
Well day 1 is in the books for what I believe is the final high school team camp for WSU basketball. 6 games in all today, 9 tomorrow, 9 thursday and a final tournament on Friday which will be double elimination and made up of games only spanning a single half of ball per game. What does that mean you ask? A whole lot of ballin’, or in my case, a whole lot of whistle blowin’.
Interesting notes for the day: Met Coach Bone and coordinator Jeff Hironaka for the first time in person today, along with a few members of the team (including Devonte Lacy, Mike Ladd and Damaundray Woolridge) as they were our scorekeepers at the gyms I was at and will continue to do that for the remainder of the camp. I was immediately impressed with how approachable the entire staff and all of the players are. I’ve been around teams and individuals in the past that were just not that accessible in one way or another, even here at Wazzu.
Coach Bone talked to my partner and I for probably 10-15 minutes about why the camp is so much smaller this year (50+ teams last season, 18 this season) to different stuff that has to still be done with recruiting to the team’s planned summer tour through Australia in the next couple months. 11 days they will be traveling Australia (though I can’t remember exactly when right now), “pretty much all the big places” he said, including Melbourne, Sidney, Hobart and Brisbane I believe. Coach told us he has only been to Aussie nation for a day and 1/2 in his life and he didn’t get to enjoy it, so he’s of course looking forward to the trip along with his team as a first time experience.
It was funny to me his answer when we asked if he was ready for the season, he shook his head emphatically and said “no, not even close”. It was mostly funny because I have never got an answer like that one before. Religiously I always get the old “Always ready” routine from coaches, but I can understand why they’re still worn out after the season went long and now they’re in at least their third straight week of evals and camps.
Anyways, my foot is sore, but other than that the first 6 are successfully out of the way and I’m back at it tomorrow. More to talk about then.
Signed,
The Ref
Day 2:
TIRED. TIRED. T.I.R.E.D!
I think this from time to time, but I rediscovered my love for the Cougar logo today. It’s just the most amazing logo in sports. And my goodness the facilities at WSU are just amazing since Bill Moos took over. The Nike WSU branding is everywhere on the campus and it’s a cool place to be. I can see many, many recruits coming to Pullman because of how cool the place is, not to mention that the community and campus in general are still very intimate and close-knit.
I’m going to bed. 9 more games to officiate tomorrow, then half a day Friday. Good grief!
Day 3:
What a long 3rd day with just 4 more hrs of a tournament in the morning to get to. Very physical day of ball with some of the bigger teams and guys getting lazy and tired, including myself.
WSU is officially challenging Oregon for the number of logos on campus, it’s everywhere.
Speaking of Oregon, I started the camp out in my black on black Oregon shorts (used for officiated summer league because they were the only black on black shorts I could find a couple years ago) and caught flack from several people, including Coach Bone. LOL needless to say I now have the black WSU shorts and told coach he doesn’t have to bother me anymore about it. HAHA
Got to see the Cougs practice, even ref them a bit tonight. Very interesting dynamic watching the practice. Very few people get to actually see them and it was really fun. They work extremely hard and it’s tough to believe at times how young these kids actually are. There were some huge dunks after practice. Just fun to see.
…I am so worn out. There’s nothing quite like officiating 24 games in a 2 and 1/2 day period. I think there was more I wanted to put, but it’s not going to happen because I can’t remember. Oh well. Good night.
Signed,
The Ref
Day 4:
Woot! I got an Nike Elite Championship ball with the branded Cougar logo and a Wazzu Basketball shirt and shorts for the week of work. I also got paid so that’s good haha. I feel better but the foot will be sore for some time after going 27 games in 4 days.
Something I didn’t mention from last night’s practice is that our team got bigger. A lot bigger and faster! The addition of Woolridge will speed up the tempo and the freshmen look really good physically. Assuming Mr Johnson gets cleared, he’s got room to get stronger, but he can hold his own. I didn’t get to see him play because of an injury but his highlight tape says it all. Next season we should be able to compete physically from a size standpoint, whereas the past 2 seasons I just didn’t fell like we matched up all that well and got worn down over the course of games and each season. Ex-asst. coach Jeff Hironaka said that the team will miss the leadership of Capers and Lodwick, who “weren’t great athletes, but incredible leaders”. He also mentioned he hates his picture being taken and we had some fun talking about high school basketball.
Good week overall. Really fun stuff and can’t wait to do it again next year…. Actually, yeah I can! 🙂
Signed,
The Ref