Reffing this morning was really fun. I did three games, one boys and two girls, all U-8. I was surprised by the skill level — a few of the little kids were actually pretty good with the ball. There’s still a tendency to play magnet ball (everyone follow the ball in one big clump), but not too bad. I made a few mistakes as ref, but overall I think it went well. It helped to have an assessor there — he watched me do the first game, and we talked afterward about what I did right and wrong. He left at that point, and I was on my own for the next two games.
After the kids’ games, Matt and Josh met me at the fields to help me get a bit of practice at playing goalkeeper before I have to play there tomorrow night. It turns out that playing keeper is harder than I thought, especially when Matt and Josh are firing balls at you at top speed. Sheesh! Tomorrow night may be a disaster. I could usually catch the slower ones, but when they really ripped it, it was all I could do to merely overcome the instinct to duck, much less actually catch the ball without it rebounding. After a while, Josh ripped a good one and I jammed my right ring finger trying to catch it. Ow ow ow OOOWWWWW. It hasn’t turned any funny colors yet, but the knuckle’s swollen to almost twice the size it should be.
I practiced punting as well, without wearing my shin guards with their lovely ankle padding, so I gave myself a nice goose egg on my ankle.
So now I have a jammed finger, a goose egg on the top of my ankle, and probably some other bruises that haven’t appeared yet — just in time for tomorrow’s 25K in the marathon warmup series. Ugh! I do too much, I know. I’m starting to have doubts about doing the marathon, but will withhold judgment until I see how tomorrow goes.