[Doug]

thanks guys, I was asking a fellow official (also varsity baseball coach) where I could purchase good equipment, and what I should buy. He gave me a stack of magazines, and I think I am going to order from anacondasports.com.

As for the partner tread, i still feel that your partner should stand behind you all the way, and TRUST your judegement! The only exception is when his judgement is poor and involves saftey issues or morality. If I give out a technical or a judgement call, my partner better stand behind me, he may not agree 100% with the call, but as my partner, he will trust me, as I would trust his judgement in a call. Question, this was a biggy at camp. As the lead official, do you ever make the call when the ball touches the backboard supports? From reading your post, you are trying to find what things make a person a good official to work with. I believe the thing that has the most impact is trust. It'll make ya or break ya. Good luck, and check back on the forum, there was a post on this from a few months ago that recieved lots of replies and was pretty good. After the previous post, I asked a college official and this was the feedback I recieved. Hope it helps,

Doug