[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I find it sad that people do not want to officiate S.O.

Here in the Great State of Ohio, Ohio S.O. has mandated for over 40 years that only OhioHSAA Registered Basketball Officials can be used to officiate S.O. Basketball Games: both regular season and post-season tournament. But Ohio we do S.O. Basketball different than the rest of the country:

1) Each County Board of Developmental Disabilities sponsors its own S.O. and we have 88 counties in the State. And six of the largest Public School Districts have their own S.O. programs.

2) S.O. Basketball in Ohio has ten divisions, one of which is the Unified Division, and the Public School S.O. programs are the programs that sponsor Unified Teams if they have the numbers. In the 28 State Finals in which I officiated there was a Unified Division in only about half of them. In the last four State Finals in which I was the Director of Officials there was only one year in which there was a Unified Division.

3) Ohio S.O. is different from the rest of the country: It does not use the National S.O. Basketball Rules which is a form of modified FIBA Rules. Instead Ohio S.O. Basketball is conducted under NFHS/OhioHSAA Basketball Rules. And the Officials officiate the game to the level of the play.

Since COVID, it has been a numbers game because of the declining number of OhioHSAA Reg. Bkb. Off. One year I had, between two County S.O. programs I had to assign officials for 16 dates: I was able to have full (2-person) crews for only 12 dates, 2 dates where I only had one official, and 2 dates that I had no officials.

I only assign for one County S.O. program now which this past season was a struggle but I was able to cover all ten dates thanks to four H.S. officials who have been officiating S.O. Basketball, three of whom have been doing it for over 30 years (Junior is the slacker with only 19 years.).

Prior to 2019 the State Finals had been rotated three cities every year with Bowling Green being one of the three and the State Finals were always held the same week as the OhioHSAA Boys' State Finals so the Dir. of Off. of any given S.O. State Finals never had a shortage of officials from which to choose. But from 2019 through 2024 (excluding 2020 which was canceled because of COVID) were held in Bowling Green but not during the OhioHSAA Boys' State Finals but during the second week of the Girls' Sectionals/first week of the Boys' Sectionals and it was next to impossible to fill 60 officiating slots (S.O. State Finals have used Three-Person Crews since the late 1980s.).

This is the second year in a row that the S.O. Finals are being conducted in Columbus next weekend (not this one coming up) and sadly, I am happy that I do not have to assign the Officials.

Now I am going to give some information that will surprise many. Way back in the 1980s when Ohio S.O. mandated that OhioHSAA must be used to officiate S.O. Bkb. it also made a decision that surprises many people: The Officials must be paid! The County for which I assign officials pay a game fee of $40/official and I know one County that pays $50/official. The State is divided into four Regions for the State Tournament which use Two-Person Crews and the State pays $60/official as well as $60/official for the State Finals.

MTD, Sr.