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Originally Posted by UNIgiantslayers
Just thought I'd share the news here because I've learned so much from you fellas and would not be where I am if not for the great conversations and advice I've read here. I live near our states largest metro area and it's pretty hard to break into the metro league ranks. The league is pretty solid top to bottom, usually has a state finalist, and is in the biggest class (4a) in our state. I have quite a few open dates still this year as I decided to no longer do JV games because of advice I read here-- you don't want varsity coaches and officials to see you as a JV official. I took any game the assignor threw my way and made sure to thank him for my games. A couple guys I worked a game with really gave him a hard time when he moved us from a game that was 2 hours away to a worse game that was 3 hours away but I didn't say a word. I got my first post season game last year and worked hard to be the best I could be that night and was really vocally grateful to the assignor for the game. I'm guessing a guy from their regular crew had something come up so the assignor threw me in there for a varsity double header in the metro league but I'm pretty excited. Now I have 2 1/2 months to be nervous.
I didn't get to a camp this summer because something was already planned with my family for both of the weekends that our association had camps. After getting this little shot, I'll definitely be attending one next summer to try to slide into a few more of these games. In the meantime I'm hoping if I do an alright job our assignor will use me when he needs a sub in the metro league.
I am thinking about contacting those other two guys and asking what their early season games are to go watch how they work a game. Hopefully that will show them that I'm taking this seriously and will give me a good idea of how to fit in the best I can with them. Any thoughts you have about that or other advice you guys have would be great. Thanks, in advance.
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Congratulations. I wouldn't go overboard with the thank yous and shadowing. There is a fine line between truly trying to improve and giving an appearance of playing politics.
Find a mentor and always seek to get better. When you are good, opportunity will find you. When the opportunity finds you, be great.