January 18th, 2006
Perspective
As I headed over to Klein Oak last night for their varsity game against Willis I was excited to work and ready to referee – and really happy that the school is just a short ten-mile trip from my house.
I arrived at the gym a little before 6pm for my 7pm game. Only the game wasn’t at 7pm, but 7:30pm – so I was quite early. I had been watching a little bit of what I thought was the first half of the JV game, but it was really the second half of the sophomore game! Worse, there were two coaches officiating the game — oh, the horror!!
When I was signing in to get paid I realized that the JV game hadn’t started. So, I approached the JV coaches and asked if he wanted us to work the JV game for them, since I and one of my co-officials were already there. They were ecstatic! See, coaches don’t really want to referee – they want to coach! They happily accepted my offer and we went to get dressed – quickly – so that we could start the game.
The JV game went off without a hitch – in fact, it was the easiest game I’ve worked all year! No problems other than a fan that I shushed about halfway through the 2nd quarter. He was being incredibly annoying and I just didn’t feel like taking heat from this guy that didn’t have a clue! I think that my shushing him got to him a bit because he quieted down for most of the rest of the game.
After the JV game we took a short break, went back into the locker room and conducted a quick “pre-game” with our 3rd official for the varsity game – as he was pretty new to 3–person officiating. We got back to the court with about five minutes left on the clock before the start of the game, held our captain’s meeting, shook hands with the coaches, listened to the introductions of the players and the Star-Spangled Banner, tossed the ball up, and were on our way.
The first three quarters of the game came and went pretty quickly – and without any issues. The players were playing, the coaches were coaching, and we were officiating. The fans were a bit rowdy – but nothing abnormal – and my buddy from the JV game was there still watching, but he was mostly behaving himself.
As we started the 4th quarter, Willis was down 40–27 and was trying to battle their way back into the game. As I rotated over into position just in front of Willis’ bench I heard a familiar cry: “Ref! Ref!” I turned to see what the issue was – something on the floor perhaps, a coach wanting a time-out, a scoring mistake. Instead what I saw shocked me – a Willis player had collapsed off of the bench and was lying on the floor unconsious.
Immediately and instinctively I stopped play. Then I heard something that in 11 years of officiating I have never heard after blowing my whistle.
Silence.
The enormity and gravity of the situation struck immediately. There was not a sound in the gym as I quietly instructed the players on the court to go to their benches. The players immediately headed towards their benches and took a knee on their respective sides of the court. However, there were no sides anymore. No one cared about the game, about who won, about the missed foul call, or anything else. There was a singular focus now.
I escorted my crew off the court and behind the table. We sat there watching the coaches and trainers attend to this player – Jarrett. “Jarrett, open your eyes if you can hear me.” , keep your eyes open for me.” “Do you want to talk to your dad, Jarrett?”
I sat there in shock as I witnessed this surreal experience – hoping and praying that this kid would be ok. A few times he was slow to respond to the constant requests to keep his eyes open and appeared to stop breathing. I sat there as several people were saying “Open your eyes Jarrett!” and gently slapping his face… After a few moments I would start thinking, “God! Please! Open your damn eyes!!!”
I didn’t think that I could handle watching this kid die right on the basketball court – and my thoughts were with his teammates, coach, and father standing over him – whom I was sure could not handle it.
After about ten minutes – but what seemed like an enternity – the fire and rescue arrived and attended to Jarod. Another twenty minutes passed before the ambulance finally got there to take him to the hospital.
As Jarrett was wheeled off of the court and out the doors, the players and coaches headed towards the center circle on the court. I said, “Let’s go.” to my co-officials and we joined them in the middle of the court, knelt down, and said the Lord’s Prayer together. The pricipal of Klein Oak high school understated, “Obviously the game is a very low priorty right now.”
With the clock stuck at 7:21 we all – fans, coaches, players, and officials – slowly and quietly made our way off of the court – each of us trying to process what we had just witnessed.
I’m not sure of Jarrett’s status – although I know that when he left the medics said that his vitals were fine. Please keep him and his family in your prayers and I will post an update as soon as I hear something.
Update: I emailed the Klein Oak coach and found out that Jarrett was moved to Texas Children’s hospital and seemed to be doing fine, although still undergoing tests and observation. I was very relieved to hear that!
Filed under: Officiating, Personal
January 18th, 2006 at 7:52 pm
Holy crap, Brad! That had to be a nightmare!! I checked the Houston newspapers and didnt see anything. Any update yet? I cant even imagine. I’m totally impressed that everyone took the time to say a prayer before restarting the game!
January 19th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Posted an update in the original post.
Actually, we did *not* restart the game - which was the only correct decision in my mind. The coaches made it easy on me by deciding that before I was going to suggest it. I’m not sure how anyone could have played or coached - and I certainly could not have refereed - after worrying about this kid’s life for the past 30+ minutes.
January 19th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
Wow, did not realize this was going on in your world. You are a good man charlie brown
Glad to hear the kid is ok.
January 23rd, 2006 at 12:18 pm
[…] The game itself was pretty uneventful (especially considering the game I worked on Tuesday) and Livingston took the win over Montgomery, tying them for 2nd place in district. […]
January 29th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Brad, Been there done that, cept my little guy didn’t make it. I know what it feels like to officiate a game in which one of players has something go wrong. In my case the player didn’t survive. That was my first year of officiating. Twas a tough time but it was my fellow referee’s that got me through it.
Ace
January 31st, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Wow! That would be so scary. Good to hear he’s still with us. Hope they figure out the problem. That was great of you to check on him. Makes you yearn for a game where the biggest problem are the hecklers!