[Scrapper1]

Just some random thoughts. Hopefully, to share a little of my perspective.

Originally Posted by RonA

Never more than now has there been a need for an ongoing, fair system of referee evaluation

Never more than now? The problem is worse than it's ever been? I agree that some objective basis for evaluation would be nice; but it's not like this is a new problem. It's always been this way for amateur referees. Just 20 or 25 years ago, your chances of moving from high school to college ball -- and even from low-level college ball to D1 college ball -- were based simply on whether you knew the assignor. There was not even such a thing as camps and try-outs. There were were very few commissioners who employed evaluators. And at the HS level and below, it was worse. One person could control a whole county's worth of HS assignments, and your schedule could depend on whether that person liked you.

I'm not trying to poo-poo your frustration. I'm just trying to assure you that it's not a new problem and not simply your problem.

For the official to be impartially evaluated it must be done by an observer who has NO stake in the game being evaluated.

That would be nice, but that person isn't going to do it out of the goodness of his heart. Who's going to pay for an observer to spend 2-4 hours a night in a HS gym, taking notes? Not the coaches. Not the conference. Very likely, not the officials' association. It would be great. Most of us would welcome it. But it's a financial issue, and it's a tough nut to crack at the HS level.

A coach should NEVER be the one to do the evaluation of an official, because all he/she will remember at the time is whether his/her team won the game and the one or two calls he/she feels cost his/her team the loss.

Two things to say about this. First, I agree with you that the coach shouldn't be allowed to evaluate the officials; but for different reasons than you state. It's not so much that they only remember wins and losses, although that's probably true. But many of them (most) have literally no idea what the official is doing or looking at on the floor. Position, angle, mechanics, judgment are completely foreign to the coaches. So they should not be given a voice about how they think we performed.

Second, despite the fact that most of them have literally no idea what we're doing out there, the coaches will ALWAYS have a say in who works and where. The assignor has to please the schools/conferences/coaches that hire him/her. Therefore, the assignor will do (roughly) what the schools/conferences/coaches want. That will never change as long as the assignor is accountable to someone other than the officials.

What a chapter needs is a fair and balanced system whereby the evaluator is a neutral party, with nothing at stake to handle these critical evaluations that are ONGOING. ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH!!!

Again, the financial question. In a perfect world, I agree with you. But how much of each game check are you willing to donate to the Observers' Fund?

It should also be requisite upon the officials who have the following game(where applicable) to complete an evaluation of the previous crew.

Again, in a perfect world. . . But not all officials want to help younger officials out. Some officials (even some good ones) just want to do their game, get their check and go home. That is what they're there for, after all. I'm not saying that's a good attitude to have; but we live in the real world. Not all officials are excited about helping others to move up and "take their games".

This information could be put in a refs file for the coaches to look at the picking meetings,

But as you've already pointed out, they only remember if they won or lost anyway. Why will they care what's in a folder. "I don't need to read his file. He screwed us last time we had him."

Evaluation of coaches are also necessary, due to some of their antics.

I think this is done by AD's. It's no more appropriate for officials to evaluate coaches than it is for coaches to evaluate officials, and for some of the same reasons.

Ok, I already wrote way too much. I know you're frustrated. And believe me when I tell you that I've been through the same frustration. The bottom line for me was that I had to tell myself, "I have no control over coaches, ratings, or postseason selection. I'm just going to go out and work my best game every night. Eventually, if I'm as good as I think I am, somebody will notice." I try to control what I can control and not worry about what I can't control.