First came the e-mail.
Then came the package, and finally the phone call.
For the second year in a row, Dixie State baseball coach Mike Littlewood, who has been a Division I basketball referee for 11 years, got the call to work the NCAA tournament.
Unlike last year where he worked just one game, Littlewood advanced further.
"This year I got the call to move on to the Sweet 16. It was kind of a surprise," he said.
At the same time, it was an honor.
"You want to progress every single year in anything you do, and this is another progression ... It's a gratifying experience to know all the hard work you put in pays off, and someone recognizes you're doing a good job with something you really like to do."
On the Friday before the teams were selected, he received an e-mail telling him that he was chosen for the first round. The next day he received a package via UPS telling him where — Lexington, Ky. — and late Sunday night after the selections he was told which teams he would call.
This year he called No. 1 Ohio State and Central Connecticut State in the first round, and then he called eventual champion Florida and Butler in the Sweet 16 in St. Louis.
Last year, his first tournament experience Littlewood called one of the better first-round match-ups when Northwestern State University upset Iowa with a buzzer-beater.
"It was baptism by fire," he said. "They throw you in and let you go."
Littlewood, who played baseball at Taylorsville High, BYU and with the Milwaukee Brewers, and coached at Alta High for a time and at Dixie State for the past 11 years, is no stranger to the pressure officiating brings. In fact, learning to deal with pressure as a player and coach has only helped him become a better official.
"The nerves take me back to when I played competitively. I don't think you should be doing it if you don't get nervous. You probably don't want to be scared, but nerves are a good thing," said Littlewood, who began officiating high school basketball in Utah 16 years ago.
"Once the ball is thrown up, all the apprehension leaves and you do what you have been trained to do."
He called more than 50 games this season in the Pac-10 Conference, Mountain West Conference and Western Athletic Conference.
Officials who called the Sweet 16 were eligible for the Final Four. Although he didn't get the call this year, when and if it comes, it'll be
another step in his progression.
"Moving up in that is so much out of your hands," he said. "You can only go and perform, and the powers that be make those decisions. But it's always a goal to go as far as you can and be the best you can be in whatever you are doing. It is no different in officiating."
E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com