Some quotes from the Boys and Girls

 “Out of Play?  I’m the JAMMER!!” (an OOP warning had been called, the blocker had immediately raised his arms, ceased contact, and started to decelerate to return to the pack while holding his line….until the jammer lowered his shoulder and launched into the blocker, flattening him).  Yah, I know; I wasn’t following you around pointing a finger at you because I’m a stalker.  I’m your jam ref.  But You Can’t Do That.  You can initiate contact on your opposing jammer anywhere, but not on a blocker who’s OOP.  The blocker exposed his whole chest when he conceded the contact, it is neither safe nor legal to hit him at that time.  Have a seat.

“Her skates didn’t touch off the track!” (a guy had just skated out of bounds, picked up the jammer from behind the wall, swung her around and replaced her on the track in front of the wall). Yep, she skated away penalty-free, with the whole place laughing and cheering her on.  Including the guy who’d moved her, who was skating to the box.  Totally worth it. ☺

“It was a legal target zone!” (from a skater who’d shoved on a blocker’s shoulder-blade until she fell face-first, then stepped over her carcass and skated off).  Skaters, please look again at the diagram of the back-block zone.  The target zone isn’t nearly as big as people like to think.

“It can’t be a penalty; there was no impact!” (about skaters called for skating out of bounds when not in contact).  There’s no impact spectrum on the skating OOB penalty; if a skater goes out of her own volition because she’s trying to maintain or increase speed, it’s a penalty.  I take it that the point is to encourage skaters to keep in control … I called it for the first time ever on a guy who’d slid out into the ref lane on three consecutive passes.  He was later overheard in the box admitting ‘It is a penalty, but I think they’re over-calling it tonight”.

“CUT!!!”  It is just awesome how some of these jammers can feel the skate going over the rope and tilt it so the outside wheels don’t touch while they pull the foot back in.  If I hadn’t been four feet away and staring at the wheels in question I wouldn’t have believed it either.  This stuff is just Sweet to watch.

“Nice job, OPR!”  If this hadn’t come from one of the kinder human beings on the planet, I’d have suspected sarcasm.  Reffing is usually more Birthday Massacre:  “Praise is just an unfamiliar sound to me”.  But that’s only because most skaters Didn’t Do It.  Funny how when I’m bout skating, I Never Did It either. :)