February 16, 2007

“My favorite part was calling the technical foul,” said the 13-year-old boy stepping out from his friends and throwing his arms into a “T’ like a two-handed karate chop. The kids around him say “Oh yeah, me too” and chop their own Ts in agreement.

It was the first morning of the NBA’s All-Star Weekend 2007, and the basketball deluge that had clogged airports, hotels, and casinos throughout the city of Las Vegas was nowhere more intensely felt than at The Preparatory Institute at Charles I. West Hall, about 15 minutes north of the strip. Gathered in the school’s gymnasium were seven NBA referees, one NBA mascot, and 50 kids, aged 11to14 and brandishing whistles. (To the chagrin of the few wincing instructors asking “Whose idea was the whistles?”)

The referees, mascot, and whistles converged upon the school for the National Basketball Referees Foundation (NBRF) 2007 NBRF All-Star Referee Mini-Clinic, an hour-long interactive seminar where students learned basic refereeing techniques and talked to the officials about professionalism and careers in sports outside the lines.

The creamy blue paint on the buildings and pristine courtyard belie the historic disrepair of West Prep. Until this fall, according to the school’s Dean of Students, Randy Pagel, the school’s byways were flooded with trash, and everything was covered in graffiti. Test scores, educational and discipline problems reflected the wracked physical state, making the school one of the lowest performing in Nevada for the last 8 years.

But this year, due to an ambitious new administration, and a majority of new teachers, things at West Prep are looking up. The curriculum is more demanding, discipline is consistent and firm, and teachers, students and parents are excited about the progress. The school has received a litany of praise and positive media, and will be opening up to high school classes next year. Wanting to help West Prep continue to thrive, the NBRF chose the school for its first event of 2007.

The mini-clinic began with a welcome from West Prep’s Pagel, and remarks by Nevada State Senator Steven Horsford. The NBRF’s Executive Director Lamell McMorris introduced NBA referees Bennie Adams, Bill Kennedy, Pat Fraher, Thomas Nunez, Jr., Ed Malloy, Monty McCutchen, and Sean Corbin. Fraher, Nunez and Malloy were in town to work the All-Star Rookie-Sophomore Challenge, and McCutchen and Corbin had been chosen to officiate the weekend’s crown jewel, the All-Star Game.

A surprise guest – the Utah Jazz Bear – ran into the gym and stirred up the audience, taking pictures and playing games with students, and performing gymnastic stunts. To the students’ amazement, at one point, with a boost to one of the gym’s backboards from Bennie Adams, he dropped through the hoop.

The referees then took hold of the show, dividing the children into groups and sending them to five different stations, each staffed by one referee. For five minutes they learned how to gesture certain common calls, like traveling or a technical foul, and then switched stations. They displayed these skills in the next segment, when Bill Kennedy blew his whistle and yelled out a call, by running across the court and showing a waiting referee the signal.

The clinic wrapped up with a question and answer session, where students asked about officiating and the NBA, and then received gift bags filled with items provided by Fox 40 Whistles, the Las Vegas 51s, University of Nevada Las Vegas, The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, and Niketown Las Vegas.

In the last moments of the event, Executive Director McMorris led the kids in a chant “Spread the word all across the nation. This is going to be a great generation!”  And as they left the gym smiling, a few still chanting, some blowing their whistles, others performing the signals they were just taught, and walked into the open courtyard in the early afternoon sun, one couldn’t help but think it’s a solid bet – befittingly in Vegas – that they’re right.