To be clear, I believe that all refs need to be allowed to work at the basic levels to gain experience. The official I had problems with was working a select level game, which runs at a fast pace, can be highly physical, and involves a group of players that are very serious about their basketball. I firmly believe that we should have minimum standards of competence for officials at that level. Our rec leagues are a great place for folks to get experience, and I think that there are a number of opportunities for an official to gain experience and be evaluated prior to moving up. I will confess to ignorance regarding the ladder of progression for basketball officials, but in soccer you have to work up to the higher level games.
I believe that IAABO does the scheduling of refs for our select level games in this area, and we see different guys every time out. I am only in my third season of select basketball, and have had very little repetition, so I do not have the kind of individual repoire that might allow me to explore other avenues than speaking with the league. Furthermore, I don't know much about what the IAABO refs do to provide assistance to each other. As a coach, I am extremely hesitant to offer advice to officials. I have yet to receive advice from officials on coaching either, although I have no doubt that some of the better officials I have had could give me some good pointers. For officials, I prefer to deal with the league.
For my recreational teams, I speak almost every week with our league administrator, and we always play in the same gym with the same officials/gym supervisors, etc. I discuss what they do well, and where they can improve - and the past two years have been 99% positive feedback. The administrator does a good job of fixing things without creating problems for officials or teams.
For the select teams, the administrator deals with other assignors, and I do believe that there should be some minimum standards for officials for those games. If I see someone that I think is completely unsuited for that level, I will tell the league. It does nothing for me, because I will probably never see the guy again, but it may be of help to someone else.
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