Grady Gallagher | Blogger

Well….. For all of those that thought the time had come where Grady was dead and gone, (this included me for well over a month) it’s nice to say we meet again.

Let’s quickly review what’s happened since my last blog (cue me searching for my last blog, finding it, reading it, shaking my head while looking down for 8 minutes straight).

So here’s what’s happened:
• Christmas
• Trip to Reading, PA, Philly, and NYC
• Met an NFL player (really upset I never got a blog done on this, stay tuned)
• Spent numerous Sundays not doing the blog when I definitely should’ve been
• 2015
• Nick and I’s tips team retained our #1 national ranking
• Tom Brady=GOAT
• One of my friends went to Arizona for 2 weeks, came back, and wasn’t my friend anymore
• Student teaching
• SnapChat now hides best friends (somewhere Sam Lipps just fist pumped)
• Zach LaVine
• CONFERENCE CHAMPS
• Paul was this close…………. To getting a girlfriend
• Steph Curry was the leading vote getter for the all-star game and 3pt champ
• The Lego Movie
• Brother AG turned 16!
• Over 10 NBA players were traded in one day
• Was informed (without consent) Paul was “taking over” the blog
• LeBron gave Neil Marshall his arm sleeve (even LBJ appreciates over 70 hits in a season)
• Sav had a double-double! (Kennedy had ten)
• Had my first teaching job interview
• Was asked if I was “awake” while reffing 7th grade boys basketball
• T Kast has gathered new appreciation for 1st grade teachers and noise cancelling head phones
• Over 200 games of euchre
• BVU seniors played their last game of organized basketball (Even the sun sets in paradise)
• Jon Lester and John Madden HAPPENED!

Yea, I kinda doubt I would’ve been able to write about any of that stuff too.
As Justin Timberlake would say, or sing, “What goes around, comes around.” Does that have anything to do with anything? No, no it doesn’t.

Anyway, let’s talk about the moment. As of right now, I project that I only have about 10 weeks left to finish this blog out. As for the rumor going around that Paul’s taking over, I have two things to say: 1. He has a 5.17, 40 yard dash. (This prompts me to ask if kickers run the forty at the combine?) and 2. He has now taken up tanning as a hobby and listed it as a “skill” on his resume. Need I say more?

I’m going to do my best to finish this blog out in the best way possible. Whether that means actually being productive on a Sunday, or skipping a Beaver tennis meet (over my dead body), or turning in one of Juhl’s 4-25 page papers he somehow gets assigned every two days, we’ll make it happen.

For this blog, I wanted to note one of my points above that read, “Was asked if I was “awake” while reffing 7th grade boys basketball.”

So, I’m lying around on Saturday afternoon when my good friend Bob Ivey calls me. He asks if I’d be interested in officiating some 7th grade boys basketball games for a few hours as he was ready for a nap after a long day (he’d been there since 8 a.m.). As I wasn’t busy and hadn’t officiated for a while, I said I would. Some easy money, maybe a look at some early talent for scouting purposes, and plus free food and drink between games from the concession stand. Just another day in paradise.

So, Kennedy and I along with two older guys (real nice guys, not great officials, but nice guys) rotate games with a three man crew from about 2-6 p.m. The day had gone fine and nobody was too feisty and we were about to start our last game. Of course, we’re all pretty burnt out and ready to head home. Just before tip, I remember thinking to myself, “This will be the game that somebody gets heated. It has to happen the last game of the day. It’s only right.”

We start the game and the teams are pretty even. The coach of the white team has said a couple things but I think they’re justified and we make it to halftime pretty smoothly. And then the second half starts….. Now the white team is on my end, and they CANNOT make a shot. The blue team is starting to pull away, and you know what that means: It’s not team play or cold shooting that is the downfall of the white team. Nope. It’s definitely the official under their basket. Yeah, he’s the enemy. So twice the white team gets the ball inside and shoots in traffic, but I don’t see any contact so I’m going to let them play. Wrong decision, G. (Kennedy tells me later that white team parents are telling him to switch me spots and saying stuff like, “tell your buddy to blow his whistle.”) One of the next possessions, after a missed shot, a kid on the white team seals the ball while he has one defender between him and the basket. As the kid goes up for a layup, he starts falling sort-of into the defender but still does not even touch him. So, I call nothing.

“What are you looking at? How about you blow your whistle?!” says the white team coach. (The ball is still live and going the other way at this point so I have to run right by him, of course.) I wanted to say there wasn’t even any contact, but before I could, the blue team hit a three. Boom. Situation now, blue team up over 10 points, not a ton of time left, coach and parents are upset. Timeout. I tried to stay as far away from the timeout huddle as possible as I’m sure it was a “even the refs are against us” speech. Honestly, the coach was pretty good for the rest of the game until about thirty seconds left when a blue team player saved the ball on the sideline near the coach when he exclaimed, “His foot was on the line! How could you not see that? Hey ref, are you even awake???” The remark was heard by all gym-dwellers and received a decent chuckle. I even saw Kennedy laughing.

Was the kid’s foot on the line? It’s possible. Was I awake? Yes. Did it lose the white team the game? No. Did the white team send the game into the IHSAA officiating committee? Yes, but they’re still reviewing the sub-state game when Brandt Van Roekel traveled before hitting the half-courter against Woodbury Central over 4 years ago.

So what’s the moral of the story?
1. Don’t be that coach/parent/official that laughs at his partner’s criticism.
2. Always leave before the last game if the day went well.
3. If you have 7th grade boys that can consistently hit threes, they are lethal in a 28 minute, continuous clock game.
4. And lastly, I think I finally found my calling: Write a children’s book about sportsmanship at youth basketball tournaments, make millions, and give it to T Kast to read to his 1st graders.

It’s good to be back!!!! See ya next week!!!!!

Deuces.