January 20

Jenny was in town in the morning for an appointment, I took her home and we had lunch at our usual pizza haunt in Quarryville. In the evening we were back on the bus, the destination was Denver, PA for a game at Cocalico HS. Cocalico has been an infrequent opponent over the years but there is some history, we played them for the league title each of the first two years the league existed (we won in 1973, they returned the favor in '74). The league realigns by enrollment every two years, in 2006 Cocalico moved into Section II replacing Lebanon. In '08 they dropped back into Section III (and off our schedule), this year they are back in II replacing Garden Spot. After the tough game at Hempfield on Wednesday we knew this game would not be easy (Cocalico has an excellent record thus far this season) but I doubt anyone expected what occurred in this night. They say it's bad form to complain about the officiating after a loss but there is no other way to say it: we lost in overtime 61-57 in a game that featured some of the most "creative" refereeing you'll ever see. I talk little about officiating on this blog because it's not my place to argue cases but this game was incredible. I was in school at JPM when the league started in 1972, I was involved with the basketball program for five years after that. In 1988 I came back after an eleven-year absence, I have seen some questionable refereeing over the years but there are no words to describe what happened on Thursday, January 20, 2011. From this point forward nothing will ever surprise me again, I can now say "I Have Seen It All". Losing clean "fair-and-square" is one thing, this was something else. This alleged loss drops us to 6-3 in the league, 7-7 overall. The boys are back in action on Saturday at home against Octorara, it's the final non-league game on the schedule. Take care, thanks for reading.