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Originally Posted by tomegun
Sorry, but I have to throw up the BS flag. The Cardinal board - yes I know too much about too many associations - is very much a good ole boy system. I know of several members who had varsity high school, college and military base-level experience, but couldn't get a varsity schedule in Northern Virginia. Why would "senior varsity officials" allow someone to come into their area and get some of their games.
Not many are in the situation that I've been in many times, but open your minds for a second. If someone like me moved to town, how would you classify me? Would I be a "senior varsity official" or a new guy? I'm not at the highest classification here in Mississippi, BUT you couldn't look at my schedule and tell it.
I was initially held back when I got to the DC area. I was given one JV game without any more for the future. Some of the local guys already knew me because I had attended a JUCO camp before moving there, got hired and worked some rec ball for the rec assignor. With nothing to lose, I went dual (IAABO area) and went to a scrimmage for another assignor. I had to drive almost an hour in the cold and I worked for about 6 minutes of a 12-year old game with officials who just went through the training class. The assignor said thank you and told me he would be in touch. I was like, "What the heck?" The next day he called to give me my assignments, all varsity to include some Catholic league games which are the best high school games in the Washington DC area. Literally and hour later the first assignor called me to give me some games, all varsity. I was truthful with him, told him why I did what I did and I worked between the two to work my schedule out. The next year the rec assignor, who gave me games when I first got to town, became the high school assignor and wanted me exclusively. I wouldn't do it because the other assignor gave me high school games before anybody. There have been other guys on my original board who have attempted to go dual to get better/more games, but it hasn't worked out for them. My situation was unique because I didn't necessarily do it to get better games, I did it to get games period. During all this, the griping was concerning the fact that I was new and someone had been on the board for X amount of years. It was never once about my ability to work the games I was assigned. The current assignor in Mississippi has asked me to look at some officials to give my opinion on their ability to work varsity games.
I have been blessed to receive good training (from Arizona, Nevada, DC/Maryland and Mississippi), accept constructive critism and work hard. It would piss me off to move to an area and get assignments because I'm "new" to the area, but not nearly new to high school officiating. Trust me, there are better systems and I would like to think we would step up and say something if an official was blatantly getting less than they deserved simply because of their time in the local area.
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Tomegun - pick up your BS flag, as there is no BS.
I didn't say that all transfers were given a varsity schedule.
I said all transfers were evaluated. They may or may not have been qualified for varsity. I have no idea why you were "held back". I transferred from Bull Run (where I worked some single A girls varsity) to Cardinal (after my son graduated from a school serviced by Cardinal), and I was evaluated. Cardinal has the "sub-varsity" (F/JV), the "swing", (mixture of JV/V), and "varsity" (predominately V). I was put on the "swing level", and for the first year or so, I got mostly F/JV games -- I think I got 8 or 9 varsity games. The next year, I was elevated to varsity level. Even at the varsity level, I worked F/JV/V. On some nights, I would work a freshman game at one school and then work a varsity game at another school. Or, I might work the freshman game, sit out the JV game, and then work the varsity game at the same school. I did this because I was able to leave work for the early games (usually 4:00 - 4:30), and it helped the assignor. This being "helpful" usually resulted in being assigned to one of the "better" games sometime down the road. I was qualifed to do the game, and it pays to be available.
