Thanks for all the good advice. Josh has an advantage over most other new refs as he is fairly well-known already by a lot of the HS coaches. This is because of a couple of things. He has played for many years and has officiated in tons of rec leagues where the games are watched by the HS refs. Also - most of them know he is my son (I don't know if that's good or bad
).
He also knows a lot of the more experienced refs because he has worked with them in rec ball for 3 or 4 years. I think that experienced refs who wind up working with new guys feel more comfortable working with someone with whom they are familiar.
He's been to a few clinics and he has reffed with me for 8 years in rec. There have been a couple of times I have intentionally "stood back" and let him handle his own situations. Almost without exception, he has acted in a very responsible and mature manner.
However, there was one time a few years ago when he was making a hand gesture to me to indicate we were in the last minute of play and an assistant coach thought Josh was "flipping him off". The assistant (this was an 8th grade boys rec game and the assistant was about 22 years old) ran out onto the court during play and tried to punch my son!
Josh (who was 14 at the time) just took off and ran behind me. Not exactly a shining moment in courage, but the other guy was much bigger. I restrained the guy and, you guessed it, he was suspended forever from our league.
Other than that, he's done pretty well
BTW - his idol (besides me, of course) is Earl Strom. We have Earl's book and Josh can quote passages from it.