Tim Menteles Website

Well, I just ended my hockey season this past weekend with the Girl’s Varsity Tournament out in Rapid City. It was my first time visiting the “Thunderdome” (Rushmore’s hockey rink). The rink is set up alot like Huron’s, only bigger and not quite as dirty and worn out. Plus, I think the people are nicer too .

Overall, I think the season went pretty well. I can only think of a few dim points. One of them has to be the Girl’s Watertown vs. Sioux Falls game in Watertown. I was pretty off that day and the game sure showed — it was slightly out of control and I just wasn’t there to ref (my mind was somewhere else i guess). Luckily, no one got hurt and the game wasn’t too thrown off by my bad refereeing skills. I was really doubting myself after that game.
Another dim point that everyone who skates can relate to is falling down twice — once in Aberdeen at center ice and another in brookings after reporting a penalty. They were both fairly embarrassing, but when you catch an edge when you’re not ready for it — you’re going down and there’s nothing you can do about it. I got some good cheers from the crowd tho and I got up laughing.

My final dim point is that some coaches will NEVER learn that yelling at a referee will NOT change their mind. No matter how much you try, you aren’t going to convince me to change my mind. Especially after I have reported the penalty / goal, I am not going to take it off the scoresheet. Get over it and quit bitching — you aren’t going to gain any favors by yelling at me — you will only lose them.
There were alot of high points throughout the season tho. One definitely was the girl’s tourney last weekend. I had a great time talking to all the people and hanging out with the other officials. I would have to say that my refereeing skills were pretty keen this weekend as well. I felt good, was skating good and really overall was enjoying being out there. I wasn’t even too nervous about the championship game (even tho I had a hard time sleeping the nite before — but I blame that on soreness).

Another highpoint of the season was the friendships I gained with many of the players and coaches. I saw alot of the Sioux Falls girl’s team this year and was ecstatic to see them win the championship in grand style. Britney (SF Goalie) took on some excellent competition and came out of there without a goal being scored against her. Way to go! Some of the other Sioux Falls girls were alot of fun to talk and laugh with too — I always got a kick out of Darcy — she’s come a long way since I first saw her 4 or 5 years ago and Beth always has this quiet little voice, but comes out and kicks some ass back there at defense. There were some other players too that I had a good time laughing with — Mason (can’t remember her first name ever), brookings’ goalie usually had a laugh or a smile — and Brit from Rushmore always had something fun to talk about. I laughed with her alot. Plus, she made our ref room smell like a chick — which was rather nice compared to normal (some of the rushmore girls took showers in our ref’s room while we weren’t in there). Oh, and Katie from Mitchell loved giving me crap (and me giving some back too). Katie knows my brother, so that helped to break the ice I guess.

Anyways, that’s enough ranting about the recently-passed hockey season. I’ll miss it, but also look forward to next season.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 7th, 2006 at 7:12 pm and is filed under Hockey, Personal, Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.