[tmp44]

I'm actually the supervisor of intramural officials at my university. I'm the only licensed official that has ever come through the basketball officials program here. We do classroom and on court instruction before games begin (which is actually tonight). My class this year is 27 students, one of which has officiated youth rec-league for one year. Other than that, absolutely no experience. One of the main things that I need to emphasize to these kids is to just blow the whistle. After that, the three other main concepts that are taught are positioning, mechanics, and trying to stay consistent along with the rules. Once everyone sort of has the basics down, then I can move along with the officials that I see are picking up on things more rapidly. What stinks is being on an urban campus, where everyone and their grandmother thinks they know basketball, along with being responsible for the officials of 118 basketball teams!