Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
I have some experience with college intramural officials as one of my better friends runs an intermural program on a major college campus. One of the issues with officials from those programs is they often do not have the transportation or the time to work games all the way out. This is especially true if they do not have the desire or commitment to the craft yet. But those that get the bug often do very well, but it is getting those out of their comfort zone to officiate real games. The intermural environment is very different than a game where the bullet are really flying in an actual middle school or high school environment. My friend had done a lot to get those officials to work games and it often does not work for most. Again the behavior of the participants and fans often is the main deterrent to those getting into the profession.
I do feel we need to do a better job to recruit younger officials. The problem is again that younger people do not see the desire to get into officiating in any sport. They do not see the value in being apart of a sport that they played. We even have a harder time to get young women that played the sport. Often the people that officiate are men that never played the game at any significant level in the first place. Most of the people we get here are men that who watched a child play sports in high school or college and then they get into officiating to stay connected to the sport.
I run a "Beginning Officials Class" and almost all the new students are people in the classes are in their 40s and older.
Peace
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About travel issues, it probably depends on the quality of transportation options available. In the DC Metro Area, I am able to get around on a combination of public transportation and Uber, on days that I don't have access to a car. If there is reliable public transit (or at least Über, ridesharing, and/or taxi service available), then transportation is less of a problem. If not, associations might consider creating a carpool system to ensure that officials can ride to games together (this would help those officials without cars).
A carpool system would also be useful for associations with large coverage areas, because even officials with cars might find it easier to ride to a neutral area to meet partners, and then ride as a crew to their game from that neutral site, than to drive the 50+ or 100+ miles alone. Heck, part of the pregame conference might already be covered on the ride to the game site. Maybe multiple officials could be assigned to ride together from a subvarsity game to a varsity game (e.g. the U1 and U2 come to Boondocks High School from the City High School boys JV game to work the Boondocks boys varsity game with the R, who already had the Boondocks JV game).
For younger officials, I would conduct sales pitches not only with the potential officials themselves, but also with significant others and/or family. This way, the people important to potential officials' lives would understand the benefits and sacrifices that officiating entails early in the process, and would decide whether and how to support their loved ones in officiating. I would also pitch the opportunities for advancement and mobility in the officiating profession, opportunities for recognition and development, and the opportunity to earn better money than in most part-time jobs. This is an element that has appealed to officials historically (cf. Ed Hochuli and Pop Warner football officiating when he was a law school student).