[ilyazhito]

Some associations do require rec ball (Board 134 requires members to work at least 1 weekend day of rec ball a month), but others ask constantly for officials to do rec assignments because they need contracts covered (Board 12, MBOA). Fortunately, there are associations that do not require rec ball, so I can work more games with those groups when I get a full varsity schedule. I might also request to limit my rec games in the other associations to varsity or up-and-coming partners, to maximize my enjoyment and the usefulness of these games.

I agree that rec ball is useless for officials' development, and even counterproductive, beyond a certain point in an official's career. The simplified, convenience mechanics used do not help officials working 2-person middle school and high school games, and the fact that rec games (except for some adult league games) use 2-person does not benefit officials who work 3-person games. Rec games may be useful for newer officials, to supplement middle school and subvarsity experience with additional game repetitions and situations, but I don't see a point for officials working those games other than to train younger/newer officials.

Officials who work rec games often develop bad habits that need to be un-learned for sanctioned scholastic games,such as ball-watching, needlessly calling outside one's primary area, not switching on fouls (or doing bump-and-run movements on violations), and not stopping the clock with the appropriate signal (or being aware of clock status in general). While some of these habits are understandable (young kids (up to 10U, maybe 12U) tend to converge around the ball in basketball and other sports), as most recreational games use a running clock (switching on fouls might waste limited playing time) that only stops for a limited set of circumstances (usually shooting fouls and timeouts), they have bad consequences for when the same officials do scholastic games (whether middle school or high school). Thus, officials need to be careful to be as situationally aware and use the same signals as in scholastic games, even when the signals may apparently be meaningless.