I had to address you specifically. Lighten up please!!!!! This is just a post about an experience and I just wanted to see what anyone else thought. I was just venting for the most part about a game or situation that I did not particularly enjoy.
I think we need to leave the PC feelings at home. I am a product of a teacher that does nothing but teach about family and Gender Roles in her profession. My Mother is a Ph.D. in Sociology and all my life I have had to challenge my thoughts about gender, race and any other though with a whole view way of thinking. I am an eqalitarian, but that does not mean I must love or respect everything because it is there in front of me. I am an official and I have every right to not like one level over another. Last time I checked, we all do. I know several officials that do not want to even do boy's games at all at any level. But you do not see me thinking that they are nuts. I am sure you have friends or had friends (I do not know your marriage or sexual preferences, so I apologize if this does not directly apply to you
) that liked women that you are not attracted too. Well, officiating is much like that. Some guys just do not like to even do varsity level, because it brings more pressure, more intensity and they get home later than they would doing a JH game. More power to them.
My point is I have always done both boy's and girl's basketball. I got my varsity start at girl's basketball and in my state we are not required to do both (most times) in the same night at all. Both play on different nights and for those conferences that play both in the same night, the assignors are not the same person and have officials of very different experience levels and qualifications. I love basketball in general, and if I had a choice of not working at all, I would rather be doing a game period. But if someone ever told me to choose or else, I would choose boy's and men's basketball every single time. When I started officiating, there was no WNBA and Women's Basketball was not hardly ever on TV. So my expectations was on the Men's side of the game. I first wanted to be in the NBA, before I changed my attitude and just would settle for the college game.
I officiate to satisfy the void that I left when I stopped being an athlete in HS. I always wondered how those officials at the Men's NCAA Final Four got there. I was not a skilled enough athlete or tall enough, so officiating is what I choose to do to stay close to the game. And because I did not play girl's basketball and the game is a bit different, I am not fasinated by it the way I am by watching Duke-Michigan on TV.
Because I am an official, it is not my responsibility to coach or teach girls how to play the game. Not to say I would never coach, but I would never have a problem with coaching girls at some point. I just do not like the fact that no one supports them nearly as much as the girls. Hell, if women supported and went to girls contests at the rate they did with boys, it would be very similar to the boys game in the support system arena. Hell you can bearly get the girls parents to come watch them, let alone anyone else.
And let me also say this to you. I live in a state that doing both boys and girls basketball can be very time consuming. Boys and Girls play on separate nights, and doing both means that I would be working more than 4 times a week. I do not have the time like I used to to devote that much time to both. And because of that and many other facts, I stick primarily to boy's basketball and only work maybe 3 nights out of the week. And I also love the boy's game, because the pressure is higher, the crowds are 10 times as big and the game is more challenging for me as an official. I hate blowouts no matter what level, but you do not have that happen as much on the boys game. I have done 15 varsity games and have not had one blowout or game with over 15 points in the final score. Even the games that looked like they were going to be blowouts, were competive the entire way. All the girls game I have had have been blowouts except for one. And that game was nearly decided at the buzzer.
I feel so glad that you feel you need to stand up for women everywhere. I am so glad you feel that you need to convince the masses about how good girls teams are or how they are not. I really do not know or care what girls basketball is in other states, because I am not going to Missouri, Indiana, Iowa or Wisconsin to find out. I live in Illinois, and I do not just officiate in just the Chicago area. I grew up in West Central Illinois and there are teams there that Chicago could not beat on one of their bad days. So my comments have nothing to do with Illinois. Actually, if I lived in the area I grew up, I would still being doing girls basketball. Some of the most conpetitive basketball on the girls side in the state.
Peace