Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Tio
Well, mu4scott has the same mindset of many upper level referees. Quite impressive for a HS official.
All I can say is at the collegiate level, there is a difference in the intensity level of the coaches. This is their livelihood and means of providing for their family. I work in a conference that has nine schools spread out in 5 states and when one of the teams in my area goes on the road, our supervisor sends at least one-two officials from the area on the road to work the game. This combats the perception that the road team is going to get jobbed by a hometown crew.
|
I agree that college is more intense and that college has coaches with more on the line. But that is mostly a supervisor problem, not an official's problem. And it really is not a problem when you are working lower level college games. Those coaches turn over so much anyway that I do not see coaches spending a lot of time worrying about where the officials are from. Not to say that that never comes into play, but I do not hear that when I am from a completely different state than both the teams and the teams are closer to each other than I am to either school. The most memorable comment I have ever been faced by a coach that brought up the issue of where the officials were from is when a team was from Florida playing a team in Indiana (3 hours away from my house BTW). The Florida coach made a comment to me sometime in the first half while the coach’s team was losing and said, “I am from Indiana too.” My comment to him, “None of us live in Indiana.” He had a puzzled look on his face and he went back to coaching the rest of the game. This coach ended up winning the game, but he probably never realized what I meant. I know I did not control what he was thinking, but he at least went back to coaching.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Tio
Secondly, there are little things that we can do to combat perception. I think Welmer's point is well taken in that a crew needs to start strong and be ready to officiate. How many times have you seen a crew show up and miss a weird play right out of the gate? There is less a margin for error with the visitors..... take it for what it's worth. Maybe Rutledge can elaborate on the rest of the content as he has heard the Welmer talk in person. I think we should all be aware that Steve Welmer works in several conferences and everyone wants him to work their games.....
|
The problem with this thread is the OP is making this comment a bigger comment than it was when presented (and was presented since). This was really a small comment in a bigger context. Steve is big on salesmanship of officiating and he feels that he is as much a salesperson of himself as he is an official. I think that this is one of many things that you hear at camp that you can use or simply throw away. Welmer did not make this all about game management or if you do not use this approach that you would not become a good official. I think this is just like anything you hear if you like the approach and understand it, use it. If you do not like it or do not completely understand it, do not use it. Also another point I was trying to make several posts ago, was that what works at the D1 level, does not work for all other officials sometimes. Welmer is on national TV and his scrutiny is very different than a D3 official that might be lucky if 100 people show up to the game. Even the dynamics of who is assigned is very different at those levels. And this comment certainly in my opinion was not about game management as it was to eliminate an early perception. I also recall that Welmer never made this an absolute statement as to suggest you had to call the first foul this way or the rest of the game was in trouble. He was really not that grandiose about it. Now we have spent a bunch of time debating this when in reality it was not that big of a deal based on what I remember. Welmer talked about a lot of things and this was just a small part of that talk.
Also keep in mind that many things people advocate in camp are not always accepted by other officials that know the official who made certain comments. Welmer might be one of the more well-known officials across the country, but there are people that I have come in contact with just as big of a star power as an official, that have not necessarily follow this approach.
Peace