Portland Jesuit, Salpoint Catholic in Tucson, Mullen Prep in Denver, Meter Dei High School in Los Angeles are each among the best high school programs in their respective states. They are all Catholic High Schools. Although, Salt Lake City might be the center of the Mormon religion, it does have Judge Memorial High School. Regularly Judge is among the best 3A teams in the state, two years ago they captured the state championship and on this Saturday I spend an afternoon officiating two full scrimmage games at Judge.
The gym is surprisingly small, but the players play hard and there are actually a few fans (I assume parents) in attendance. It is my first officiating of the season and it is good to work out some cobwebs. Judge mixes teams and players around. I notice one of the coaches has a "DeMatha Basketball" T-shirt on. DeMatha, located in Baltimore, Maryland, is the center of Catholic High School basketball, it was formerly lead by legednday high school coach Morgan Wooten, has won numerous high school basketball national championships and it has dripped all the way to Salt Lake City.
If I had all the money in the world I would referee, and today is proof of that as I am not being paid. I am very familiar with Judge and several of the players recognize me from my summer officiating at the U. Their is a certain excitement at the start of every high school season as Judge is still undefeated. It's basketball and it got Judge's season off to a start.
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