Tony’s Take: The whistle I’ll never forget

By Tony Duckworth, [email protected]

Camping. During the off-season, officials in every sport are required to participate in professional development. In the GHSA, officials who aspire to officiate state post-season games must attend a sanctioned post-season camp annually or complete a varsity credit camp every two years. 

Multiple high school basketball teams converge to gymnasiums to play summer games as a springboard for the upcoming season. GHSA schedules officials’ camps at these venues around the state. Every game has up to three evaluators who take notes, coach, and rank the three-person crews. Officials who desire to be assigned post-season work must achieve a worthy Tier score for consideration for a state playoff game(s) assignment(s). In addition to tier ranking, officials must pass the GHSA rules test and officiate at least 10 high school basketball games during the season leading up to the playoffs.  

While there is an upcoming basketball official’s camp at Valdosta University, I chose to attend a post-season camp at the LakePoint Sports Complex north of Kennesaw for the second time in three years. LakePoint is one of the nation’s premier youth sports destinations, located on a 1,300-acre property that attracts approximately 2.5M spectators each year. Their venues include outdoor turf fields for baseball and softball, while the 170,000-square-foot Champions Center is home to basketball, gymnastics, and volleyball. The venue boasts state-of-the-art technology for the twelve basketball courts that rest under one roof. It is remarkable to see 24 high school teams and 36 basketball officials simultaneously competing and officiating. The 12 courts have an individual scoreboard operator, shot clock operator, statistician, and filmer. The overhead to run this sports facility is beyond comprehension, but it is memorable to be part of the LakePoint camp experience. 

I’m not suggesting this type of evaluation and rankings system would work in every profession but select organizations should consider a version of this scrutiny. Officials are under the watchful eye of evaluators, while coaches and fans add additional pressure to the moment. I believe employees would benefit from evaluations, coaching, and feedback for any employee who interacts with customers from evaluators outside their organization. Employers who employ customer service representatives, bank tellers, cashiers, trainers, waiters, etc., would enhance the customer experience as pay scales and advancement, in part, could be based on the employees’ performance while under the microscope. Imagine CEO’s getting feedback while interacting during Board meetings and trial lawyers having some evaluate them in court? 

Memory. I officiated five games during my two-day camp. The camp coordinator assigned me to two games that featured four highly talented, unnamed metro Atlanta squads. The camp director told me after I completed the second game that those two high-profile games were equivalent to final four state playoff games.  

The featured court was #8. This court is basically in the middle of the complex, and fans, teams, and college coaches know when the high-major talent prospects are scheduled to play.  

My fifth and final game was standing room only and featured two teams that both advanced to the GHSA state playoffs in March. One was a high-classification defending state champion last season who won 27 games. The other squad won 26 games last season.  

The 26-win team had the best player in camp, which garnered high-major programs’ coaching staff’s attention to take another look at his game. The game was tightly contested throughout.  

The Whistle. With approximately seven minutes remaining in the contest, I made a call I will always remember. To paint the picture, when I made the call, I could have turned around and fist-bumped a SEC head coach and his assistant coaches who were watching this high-major talent. The rising senior will sign a lucrative NIL deal as he heads to the next level. 

As two players approached the division line, the defender was applying pressure on the ball. As the best player in camp crossed midcourt with the ball, he spun and made contact with the defender with his forearm that was off the ball. When contact was made, the offensive player extended his arm against the defender, creating an advantage that led to a violation. Strong whistle, stand tall, fist and arm extended above my head, and then I initiated the player control signal with authority, indicating an offensive foul.  

I have played the play back in my mind dozens of times in slow motion, and I still feel great about the whistle and the result.  

The remainder of the game was back and forth, and the defending state champs fell in this epic summer matchup. 

Many seasoned basketball officials will tell you the player control signal is the most satisfying call we make. I consider this call even with the third strike punchout in baseball. 

Once the fall arrives, it will be time to apply the feedback received in camp to enhance the game we love. 

Follow Tony Duckworth on the X platform at @tonyduckworthsr or email him at [email protected]. Duckworth is a native of Macon and is the President and CEO of the Albany Area YMCA. Tony worked in intercollegiate athletics for thirty-one years. He was an NCAA Division II Director of Athletics at three universities, including Albany State, following ten years as a head men’s basketball coach at two colleges.