Funny you should mention this, Tim...
Just this month I had an experience with a first year female official...one I'll not forget for a while.
I had contacted a fairly large school inquiring about getting on their varsity schedules. The assignor for the school informed me that he only had two openings for a single person. Since I wanted to get me & my regular partner onto the schedule, I said to schedule us for the two games. He said he would with the intent of giving us varsity games in the coming years. I asked him who the partners would be. He told me the partner for each game would be the same--Ms. So & so. "She is a first year official and we're trying to work with her to improve her officiating skills."
I gulped hard, and said, "Okay, no problem, see you then." Informed my partner and we did the games. They were against a traveling Canadian team & just practice games, however, this female official didn't really have a clue. I got dressed in my own locker room and waited for a knock on the door since I didn't know where the locker room was. That knock never came! I went searching for her. Finally found her standing at the table ON THE FLOOR waiting for the game to begin!! I walked up to her and asked if she had ever gone through a pre-game. She answered, "No. No one had ever bothered to do that with her in her previous 5 high school games." I said, "Come with me."
To make the LONG story shorter, we went through an abbreviated pre-game (I could tell she was getting overwhelmed) and had an okay game. I made all my calls and only creeped into her area when I thought someone might get hurt. She hardly whistled anything! No fouls, no violation, etc. I tried to talk and give her pointers at every timeout situation. I constantly asked if she had any questions...NOT A ONE.
The assignor came to me after the game and said that I was just what he was looking for and that he wanted to schedule me for multiple games for years to come. He said he appreciated how much I tried to work with the female official. I believe he is just trying to give her a break and help her out.
Moral of the story? I took her under my wing, tried to help her & stick up for her, and it paid off with "the people in the know".
No matter how bad it is, Tim, keep the chin up and help your partner out!
|