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Originally Posted by SMEngmann
Another aspect, which also goes directly to money, is that the atmosphere in a lot of these games is very unfriendly to officials. In a regular season game, there are rules of conduct that players and coaches must abide by and consequences if they don't (i.e. suspensions, possibility of getting fired). In summer league, there's no accountability because the coaches are paying the tournament director, who will often hang out the officials to dry because the coach is the one generating income, and they can always find another warm body. I've seen some AAU tournaments with "court monitors" (who incidentally have no officiating experience) who coaches can complain to during the game about the officials, and I've heard about officials getting removed during games over some calls and sent home. This sort of atmosphere encourages trouble-makers and discourages quality officials from working these games.
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Early this summer, I agreed to work an AAU tournament. With another experienced official, I was asked to work the final three games on the "main court," including the tournament championship. During our first game, I gave a coach a technical foul and he sat and stewed for the rest of the game. After the game, the coach went over to the tournament director and, shortly after that, the tournament director came over to my partner and me and said that we were being reassigned to a different court. Apparently, the recently-T'd coach (who's team was going to play in the championship in the final game of the day) had requested our reassignment because of his perception that I "had it in for him." My partner and I said that we'd work wherever the director assigned us that day, but explained to the director that it may not be wise to let coaches pick their officials. When the most senior official who was at the site got wind of what was happening, he went to the tournament director and told him that if we were taken off the main court because of a coach's request, not only would he never work for the tournament director again, but he would encourage all the officials in the association to do the same. The tournament director -- apparently susceptible to threats whether from coaches or officials -- relented and kept us on the same court. The coach stewed quietly all game as his favored-but-underperforming team lost the championship. I'm confident that he, the team and their entourage all had a good *****ing session after the game to blame the officials for their loss rather than the team's poor play.
Anyway, the point of this is to agree with what SMEngmann said -- the atmosphere was unfriendly to officials. I'm not planning to work the AAU tournament anymore and -- although I don't think I'm God's gift to officiating -- I was one of the more experienced and better officials at the tournament. So, I guess one thing that could be done to improve officiating is to do your part at creating an environment in which quality officials will want to work. Best wishes.