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I agree that the implementation has a lot to be desired, but Todd Stordahl is stuck in the middle. It was the director of the WIAA that decided to make 3-person mandatory at the state tournaments (and districts too I believe) without addressing how it would be implemented at the local levels. Todd was given the task of figuring out how to make it work. Todd speaks the company line, but he probably feels a little frustrated with the way it's being done at times too. He is trying to follow his marching papers while working with officials, school athletic directors, the WOA executive board and the WIAA. IMHO, he has been put in a no-win situation.
I agree with Ron P. that WOA camp attendance has been light in past years, but making it a requirement in order to work state tournaments isn't the long-term answer for that. Many officials have been going to camps other than the WOA camp. Obviously, they have been finding more value in the other camps and not enough value in WOA camps. Besides, this year will probably be the only year with an upward spike in attendance at WOA camps. Attendance may be exactly the reason that they didn't certify other camps. Ron Pilo's own camp (SOWB) has received rave reviews from our Snohomish County Officials who have attended it and I would think it would be a prime candidate for certification. Just a question though Ron - if you're association is concerned about WOA camp attendance, why do you offer one that would appear to "compete" with the WOA camp and possibly draw campers away from the WOA camp? Not criticizing, just asking if you've thought about that.
As far as state tournament officiating deteriorating.... I don't see that deteroriation from my knothole - and that wasn't the driver for this. I watched several of the tournaments this year and thought the officiating was fantastic. The driver for 3-person was that Mike Colabrese (WIAA director) saw too much rough play at the 3A and 4A boys tournaments (where our state's best officials are) and felt that 3-person needed to go in now. I do think almost all officials support 3-person, but most probably have a severe dislike for the way it's being put in. It's unfortunate that the "local details" (whether or not any regular-season games will be 3-person in each region) is left up to the local assignors and A.D's. It's a hodge-podge approach rather than implementing a state-wide uniform approach.
How much chance does a "high-school-only" official have to do real well at state when they will have about 5 3-person games under their belt when the state tourney begins? It would have been much more fair to mandate that ALL games be 3-person, even if the pay cut was mandatory for all games. In my local area, I have heard that the local schools don't want to do ANY 3-person during the regular season so our high school refs will be pretty darn green at 3-person when the state tourney begins. Yeah, they can work 3-person at our summer tournaments and all that, but they will still be thinking about positioning and coverage areas while the "college officials" are in automatic mode and just calling the game. I've always heard "college officials" talk about how hard it is to switch back to 2-person for high school games. Now the "pain" of switching back and forth is being moved to the backbone of our state's officiating community - high school-only officials.
It's also unfortunate that officials have to take a huge 3-year pay cut (for the games which will be 3-person) with no guarantee of staying 3-person after the 3-year trial period. Sacrifice with a pay-off is one thing .. sacrifice with no change at the end would be pointless. The state of Nevada just went back to 2-person after trying 3-person locally for a while and I fear that we might end up in the same boat.
The drop in state allocations (12 officials at each tourney rather than 16) does not bother me because I think any official going to state deserves to work all four days. Having been on both sides of the fence (sent home after two days and also having worked a state championship game), I know how it feels to be sent home and also how it feels to work all four days. No matter how much pride you feel in making it to state, you feel like a loser if you do "two and out."
Hard questions about details of this 3-person implmentation need to be asked at the Aug 13 WOA meeting. Our association is sending several representatives and our assignor to make sure we understand it all clearly. That meeting is your chance to air your concerns, try to understand how it will all work and to make it clear that officials should have more involvement in the process next time.
Z
[Edited by zebraman on Jun 8th, 2004 at 02:29 PM]
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