Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyg08
if you have enough umpires to make it that tough of a process...that is the ideal way to do it.
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Great point Johnny! The big deciding factor among associations around here is the availability of officials. During the baseball season, we typically have enough umpires so experienced and competent officials are working all varsity contests. Although there are times when the less qualified/developing officials get mixed in. In a perfect world you would go through so many years of development until the assignor felt you were ready for the varsity assignments but that's not always true (at least around here).
It's a mixed bag around here. Some assignors will hold off on giving an new officials varsity dates. However it seems if the assignor has an experience with the official, they are more apt to give them varsity dates sooner. For instance, I worked a year of baseball and proved myself as a good official. The next fall, I worked my first year of basketball with the same assignor. He scheduled me for varsity games because of my aptitude for officiating although he had not seen me officiate basketball. He obviously recognized my attitude for rules study and my attention to detail so thought he would just throw me in the mix. Granted I didn't get the best varsity assignments the first few years but I wasn't complaining.
-Josh