April 16, 2021:

From inside the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball tournament venue in Omaha, NE: here’s video I shot of the path between the arena (where the last eight teams will play) and the four convention center courts (where the first two rounds were contested). Regional semifinals will also happen Saturday and Sunday in the convention center on Courts 1 (supplied by the University of Nebraska-Omaha) and Court 3 (supplied by Creighton).

April 21, 2021:

Like most things in life, the saying in officiating is that you’re only as good as your last outing. Well, if that’s the case for me this year, I’m in great shape.

My college volleyball line judging season finished on Monday with an epic five-set NCAA regional final (the volleyball equivalent of the Elite Eight–the match to go to the Final Four) where the undefeated #1 team in the country, Wisconsin, was pushed to the max by SEC power, Florida, but earned their way to the national semifinals.

I’ll have some other posts later from my experiences at the NCAA Tournament in Omaha, NE, including some of the other excellent partners and people I worked with and encountered along the way, but the crew for this match was top notch. All credit goes to our teamwork and my partners in first referee Margie Ray, second referee Joe Gustafson, fellow line judge Kyp Harasymowycz, and reserve Kaili Kimura (not pictured) who were all incredible.

The way referees judge themselves many times is if nobody noticed you were there, and the match was high quality, then it was a great night. Without a doubt, both occurred. To have the match be broadcast nationally on ESPNU (a few highlights below) was just icing on the cake.

What I love best about officiating in moments like this at this level is the fact that as a 47-year-old man, whose competitive playing days are long behind me, I can still have the same exact emotions as a high school senior who just won the state championship. That, plus the uniqueness of this year’s 48 team NCAA Tournament where all of the matches were played in one venue, made this amongst the greatest and most awesome experiences I’ve ever had in sports.

April 23, 2021:

Another question I’ve heard several times since I returned from the NCAA volleyball tournament in Omaha, NE was regarding how I survived stuck in my hotel room in the bubble for so long.

Well, actually, we didn’t have a bubble. Our protocols weren’t as severe as what you may have heard with the NCAA basketball tournament referees. We could actually leave our rooms and hotel, walk around the downtown and Old Market areas, go to restaurants (although they highly advised us to order takeout or eat outside), and spend short amounts of time visiting with one another. We were not allowed to hang out in the convention center to watch matches which we were not officiating since that would add to potential social distancing issues and numbers inside that already congested area. So, we went back to the hotel and watched online or on TV to check out all the other action.

Right next to the hotel, there is a open air area with a huge television called the Capitol District with several restaurants and a convenience store and that was a place where we got together to eat and watch.

Photo of me getting COVID tested – this was a daily occurrence:

Group photo of all 32 referees, 20 line judges, and six scorers that made up the entire crew:

April 23, 2021:

I’ll finish up my posts about the NCAA volleyball tournament in Omaha, NE paying homage to the incredible referee and line judge partners I worked with throughout (of course, I don’t intend to leave out the scorer’s table crews and other workers–I just don’t have pictures of them).

One of the advantages of this year’s one-site setup was that all teams and officials were all together, as opposed to the normal situation of spreading them to 16 sites across the country. For the most part, referees and line judges then stay local and you don’t get to work with others outside your general geographic area until maybe the regional and national championship rounds.

But check out the awesome crew mates I had the pleasure of working with from across the country as well as seeing teams that I wouldn’t normally officiate.

1st Round – CREIGHTON/MOREHEAD STATE: LJ Tony Huber (Missouri), R1 Lena Gustafson (Utah), R2 Jim Kuziela (Illinois), me, Alternate Pati Rolf (Wisconsin)

1st Round – RIDER/UCLA: Alternate Kevin Wendelboe (North Carolina), me, R1 Margie Ray (Washington), R2 Daphne Nelson (Utah), LJ Nate Wagner (Nebraska)

2nd Round – FLORIDA/MOREHEAD STATE: Me, R1 Maile Jewkes (Utah), R2 Paul Albright (Illinois), LJ Henry Chen (Michigan), Alternate Bill Thornburgh (Kentucky)

2nd Round – BYU/UCLA: LJ Henry Chen (Michigan), R1 Christina Fiebich (Minnesota), R2 Kevin Wendelboe (North Carolina), me, Daphne Nelson (Utah)

Regional Semifinal – MINNESOTA/PITTSBURGH: Alternate Michelle Prater (Georgia), me, R2 Brett Myres (Iowa), Pati Rolf (Wisconsin), Tony Huber (Missouri)

Regional Final – WISCONSIN/FLORIDA: Kyp Harasymowycz (Indiana), Joe Gustafson (Illinois), Margie Ray (Washington), me, not pictured: Kaili Kimura (California)

What a fantastic opportunity to work with and learn from 32 of the best referees and 20 of the best line judges from all over America! As great as this experience was, I hope that a pandemic will never cause us to gather in this fashion again.

Years from now when we tell these stories to the next generation of officials, they probably won’t believe what happened this season! We’ll have memories for a lifetime. This year’s tournament was a blast!