8 games in 18 hours

... and still can feel my feet (no small feat - nor small feet).

Saturday night - Susie was gone overnight for the Fryeburg Fair so I took three evening games starting at 6:40pm (not leaving me alone with those kids! they may kill each other, but they're not taking me with them!). Being a Peewee and two Bantam games, they were fairly fast and as all "C" level checking games are, rather entertaining. I was really "on my game" for this set (sometimes you just see the game with more clarity and decisiveness) and I even got to toss a coach - which I haven't actually done for a few years - who was loudly irate over a "NON-Icing" call and wouldn't shut up or calm down. (Icing you say? Nobody gets irate over an icing call - or non-call. But you'd be wrong!) By the time I finished the necessary paperwork (all game misconducts require a report) and got home and to bed it was 11:30. Then up at 5:30am to be on the ice in Falmouth at 7:00am for five more games (1 squirt and 2 peewees, then 2 girls games). When the kids lined up for the first faceoff, I was impressed with how geared up they were - squirts seldom look this competent. They started out quite aggressively and I quickly called a penalty for checking. The confused coach asked what the penalty was for, and the game resumed. At the very next whistle, he politely repeated his request for an explanation, which I gave. He then said "but this is a peewee game. They are allowed to check!". "Really? Peewee's? Not Squirts?" said I? The timekeeper confirmed it. (wow - this set ALWAYS starts with Squirts, but that explained why they looked so strong) I offered my apologies to the coach and player and let him out of the penalty box and cancelled the penalty (thankfully, they were not scored on while he was incorrectly being punished). Needless to say I didn't feel "on my game" for the rest of this one, but things went better after that. The one coach's complaint of the day was from Falmouth in the 3rd game, who felt I was being too strict and calling too many penalties of his team. "Come on Ref - we're trying to teach them how to check!" he complained. "But coach, I called a trip - not an illegal check!". I refrained from saying what I wanted to say which would have been "I understand you are trying to teach them how to check, but you need to understand that I'm simply letting you know they haven't learned yet! Keep trying".