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Originally Posted by SMEngmann
I think one thing that has been missing in the conversation is that the question was what level is harder to officiate, and not just what level is harder to call. These are two very different things and it takes far more skill, and it's much harder to officiate a higher level game than any lower level game. Largely, this is because the amount that's expected of you at a higher level game is much higher than a JV or junior high game. Game awareness, situational awareness, foul selection and the like all play higher roles in more high profile games, where they are often overlooked in lower level games. If you don't know a kid's fouled out in JH, it really is no big deal, same thing with not knowing the TO situation, etc, but in higher level games, not being aware of the impact of your calls and losing focus is a major problem. If you kick a call in a lower level game and call something that's not there, everyone looks past that mistake, in a higher level game, it can have real implications on the game. So in terms of calling the game, I agree that games when the ball isn't going in and with less skilled players are harder to call, but because of the other factors, the higher up the ladder, the harder the game is to officiate.
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By the same token, your focus is automatically better while working that high profile game...the energy, tempo, pressure to do well all make maintaining focus easier. That's been my experience at least. If you are ready to work that level of game, the talent level and flow make it easier.
You can't say that about a lower level game...the play is ugly, there is more contact to weed through, the pace is slower and leads to distraction, there is rarely any flow to the game, getting a good look becomes harder because you can't anticipate the play when the teams can't run an offense.
I agree the pressure to get everything right isn't there, but the likelihood of something goofy happening during these lower level games is also very high, so I think it offsets.