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Originally Posted by Camron Rust
Juulie, I hope you're not completely serious (read all this before you pass judgement on my statements).
While there have been few women make it to the tourney, there have been few qualified to pick from (and I have voted for all of them). The best upcoming women officials I've seen don't stick around long enough to even get on the ballot, much less get in a tourney. Look at all the men who went to the tourney this year: every single one of them has been officiating 15-20+ YEARS....you don't get there quickly....even as a male. I think I can count on one hand the number of females that are in the PBOA that have been officiating that long. Even the next 20-30 officials on the list have worked 10-15+ years. The women that do continue officiating often moved on to college ball or have moved away.
The typical good official (male or female) will be working 4-7 years in the PBOA before getting a varsity game (of any kind) much less a playoff game. Many promising officials (male or female) I've seen don't stick it out long enough to get there. They all want it today. If you look at our association of 350 people and realize that the number of varisty games we do accounts for only ~15% of the games, it becomes pretty clear that there are a lot of people not getting varsity games. Unless there are varsity officials leaving, you've got to be clearly better to take their games away from them, not just as good.
Also, if you look at the percentages of females in the association, they get a larger % of varsity games than thier actual numbers suggest. A female official gets varisty games well before a similarly skilled male official. You'll also notice that the percentage of females drops as the experience level goes up (larger percentage of females among newer members as compared to the older members). Put simply, many women come in, see few women officials at the top, and give up...not sticking around long enough to get women to the top and not realizing they were getting there faster than thier male peers.
When I see a newer official that stands out, I'll often tell the commissioner/assignor about it. I've done so for several over the years including several women. Not one of those women that I gave very positive feedback on stuck around more than 2-3 years while several of the men have. Where'd they go? I don't know but there were not here long enough to get anywhere.
All that said, there is a stong belief around the association that there are several officials just out of the tourney votes that are just as qualified as the last few to get in...the way popular votes often go. There are going to be changes in the tourney selection system that will mix things things up. Several more officials will now get a shot. In fact, I think it will guarantee that you'll see more women and minorities from the PBOA in the playoffs. I can think of at least 2 women that have never been to the playoffs that, under the proposed system, will likely be there within 3 years...probably at the girls 5A. Those two are also officials that have been around for many years.
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Camron -- you and I have debated this before, and I know there's not a lot of agreement between us. I don't think this is the place for this discussion. The basic fact is that women don't stick around because they don't see any point to sticking around. If they're good they move up to college. If they're not, they just quit. I know these are facts because I talk to these people.
Also, even if the PBOA changes their tournament selection process, there's still the whole OSAA thing to get around. How will having both boys' and girls' tournaments at the same time, same site, make it more likely for women to get to the tournament? Has it helped at 1A, or 2A in the past? Fact is, this is going to be retrograde, and I personally think it's at least partially....
no, I'm not going to say that. No point.
Lastly, even if PBOA is the most enlightened organization in the country, what about the rest of the state? It's even more neanderthal in Burns, Medford, Pendleton and even Eugene than it is here in Portland. Ya gotta admit, there's not a lot of future for women in high school basketball officiating in Oregon.