Training, training, meeting

Another busy weekend.
Friday night I was at Loganville watching the Apalachee football team play its last game of the year. With the loss to Loganville, the teams hope of making the playoffs was over.
Saturday morning came early with a trip to Collins Hill for a training session at a USA tournament. The numbers were a little small, so there were only three mats. There were about 20 officials. I did not have to officiate much, but we discussed every difficult, or opinionated call as a group and it was a great learning experience. I had some pretty competent officials on my mat so it was a lot of fun. Just a few small tweaks in timing, and some advice on selling your calls was all my group really needed. We were through officiating before 11:00pm. The mats were rolled, and I was out the door.
I went home, cleaned up, grabbed the wife, and had a nice lunch before heading to sectionals for the cheerleaders. My wife had never seen a cheer competition, and really enjoyed it. The local girls competed without many mistakes, and the coach was very happy. They placed second in their division, and qualified for the next level. Another good performance next Friday, and they will make it to State.
Sunday morning came late(time change), and I had a full afternoon ahead of me.  By 2:30, I was at The all officials meeting. This is something the state started last year in an effort to be more consistent. We had a two hour clinic with several presenters reviewing some of the more difficult situations as an official. They will be emailing me the notes from the clinic to review, and I will post them here on my Blog. There were about two hundred officials there representing all of the associations throughout the state. As always it was a good meeting, and good to see all of the guys who love the sport as much as I do. I found out that all of the Team Georgia National Team Officials had achieved upgrades as well. What that means is, that we all fulfilled the requirements for upgrades, had excellent reviews, were recommended by our state, and passed a vote at a USA national meeting. We have two new M1 officials in the state, Krisa, and Buck Timbs. I am proud of them and look forward to the day I achieve my M1 status.
The meeting ended about 5:00, and I stayed around socializing till about 5:30. Next on my agenda was a trip to the Domanico's for a Team Georgia Board meeting. Although we took care of business till 9:00pm, the meeting is not a total boar. We discussed interesting topics the entire time, and i got to see some of my more enjoyable friends. I was happy with the meeting, Danny and I only got in trouble once. We were having a little side bar conversation about the wrestlers at Oklahoma City University while Anthony was in the middle of conversation. Because we were also on a conference call for those that could not attend in person he threw a pen at us instead of telling us to shut-up. Danny and I finished the conversation by passing notes.
I will be at Lambert next weekend for our final training session. I look forward to seeing you there.