[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by SMEngmann

In my opinion, the vast majority of problems in AAU games come because the officials on the games haven't yet developed the level of expertise needed to control these games. Often, AAU officials are younger officials looking to work higher level ball, or guys who will ref 10-11 games in a row to pick up a paycheck, and couldn't care less about the coaches. Also, many of the coaches are slighly less scrupulous than coaches in high school games because AAU is a business to them, and they don't have a teaching job they need to worry about.

My philosophy when I work AAU games is that I will not be bullied or intimidated, nor will I make any concessions in terms of the rules or sportsmanship. Many guys have the attitude that because it's summer ball, it's relaxed and they will have more tolerance for BS than they ordinarily would, I go in with the opposite approach. There are plenty of AAU games around, and if the tournament director doesn't like how I deal with coaches or wants me to bend, I will simply not work those games. If the director sides with a coach over me, fine, I just won't work. I think if collectively we as officials adopted the policy that we will not bend to simply help the tournament director make a buck, then we'd be much better off.

I do not think the over all problem is ever the officials. I think the problem is the tournament structure. There is money these teams put into these teams and often times the coaches are not real coaches. You get some dad, pro athlete or business owner running a team rather than someone that has that kind of training or background. I have seen some of the most competent officials have to deal with the most out of hand coaches and players. You can have all the best intentions and attitudes and some coach that has never been reprimanded all summer long can give you crap. I have thrown out coaches only to have them try to approach me after the game (not in a threatening way) about why they were thrown out and an evaluation of what my resume was. I once had a coach try to tell me that I was not a HS official because I was not wearing an IHSA Patch on my sleeve during a tournament. Little did the dumb azz know I do not wear patches during those kinds of games (a lot of people do not wear them). But you could not tell that to this fool. So it really never is going to matter how good you are or how experienced you are. These games will always have some kind of problem unless tournament directors want to put their foot down. But that might mean they lose money or teams in the process. So that will not happen anytime soon in most cases under the current structure.

Peace