[oatmealqueen]

Originally posted by rainmaker
I'll tell you my primary beef about how the officials are chosen for state in our association. All the officials are thrown into one pot, and voted on by everyone. This means that if a ref only does girls games, as all the women do in our association, only half the coaches see them, and they never get enough votes to make the top of the list. Also, since we put women together as much as possible to give the girls as many women refs as possible, not nearly as many men refs have seen the women refs as partners, so the ref part of the vote heavily favors the men also.

So although we have several very capable women refs with years of experience, and lots of college and very high level HS experience, we have only two women who ever go to state, and then only two years on, and a year off, like everyone else. And neither has ever done the final. Yet a couple of years ago, I heard some of the refs from our association at state talking about how they never do girls games, and feel so out of their rhythm doing these games.

Women in our association get discouraged and quit, because there is not an avenue for advancement to state. It can't happen, so why bother?

The frustrating part is that the fix is so simple: Add a requirement that a ref must do x number of girls' varsity games to go to the girls' tournament, and make x a reasonable number such as 10 or 12. This would also spread the tourney eligibility out a little more among the men, and would get refs to the state tourney that know and appreciate the girls' game.

Okay, I'll climb down off my soap box now, and shut up.

Juulie,
Can someone work the girl's or boy's Tournament or Championship game without doing a single game during the season? More specifically, could an official who has not done one single girl's game work their tournament?
Also, are there women who work the boy's tournament?
thanks in advance