[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

How did grade school come into this conversation?

When I asked if the pool of grade school and high school officials should be kept separate, you said yes. I was just trying to determine how far you were willing to segregate officials.

Originally Posted by JRutledge

In our state you cannot work both Boy's and Girl's playoffs. You definitely cannot work Men's and Women's basketball at the same time.

That's not entirely true. I've worked both girls and boys regionals, in the same season. Now, it is true once you are picked to move further, you cannot work both because they are happening simultaneously. But I know of several officials that have worked state championship games in both boys and girls, in different seasons.

Originally Posted by JRutledge

In many cases you cannot get assigned both boy's and girl's basketball without getting a lot of grief for it (might hurt in assignment with boy's games for sure).

Well, I can't help but say the following: I'm not sure how it is where you live, but where I live (sorry ) that's not entirely the case. Many of the schools in our area hire their own officials, and many officials work both girls and boys varsity. Some AD's of the smaller schools almost require doing both. There are, of course, some officials that only work boys varsity by their own choice. There are also some class AA leagues that use an assignor, but I have seen officials that work both sides of those leagues as well.

Originally Posted by JRutledge

And let us not talk about college officiating and how that is even more split.

I'm well aware of that. At least in college, there are different rules, mechanics and philosophies between the games. I suppose the prevailing thought is that in order to be good, you should concentrate on one or the other. As an official moves up in college, men's or women's, they are also encouraged to give up high school games for this reason.

But, in HS, the rules and mechanics are the same; the only difference is the style of play. So, if you are a good official, shouldn't you be able to adjust to different styles of play? If you're only good enough to do the boys' style, and not the girls', maybe you're good enough to work the boys' game where they fast break and shoot 3's all night, but you're not good enough to adjust to the boy's game where they run set offenses all night, right? Is there any difference in how you interact with a boy's team's coach vs. a girl's team's coach? How specialized are you as an official? Or, are you just a good official? I'm not sure there are specific answers; each person might have different likes and dislikes - just something to think about.