[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I don't think that one can make the blanket statement that officials that only officiate high school basketball dislike college officials.

Officials of amateur contests can be divided into the following categories:

1) Officials that only officiate at the high school level and below.

2) Officials that officiate a mixed schedule of high school and college.

3) Officials that only officiate at the college level.

The percentage of H.S. and college games for a Group #2 official can vary from official to official.

It has been my experience that there is a small group of officials in both Groups #2 and #3, that think that they walk on water. These schmucks can give the rest of the members in those two groups a bad name.

I have also found that there is a small group of officials on Group #1 that resent officials who are in Groups #2 and #3 because they think that they should be officiating at the college level and they are not. These are the officials that do not know the rules or casebook plays, their mechanics are terrible and resent officials (Group #1, #2, and #3) who do know the rules and apply them correctly and use correct mechanics. These officials will always be with us and there is not much one can do about it.

MTD, Sr.