Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandon Kincer
I dont want to seem like a jerk to you guys. Im excited to learn. I just dont want a guy that is expierenced who I COULD be learning from just tryin to make me into an example of his authority. Im out there to make judgement calls to the best of my ability and thats what I want to do. On a better note: I would like to announce to the people that have replied to my posts on this board and are honestly tryin to help me out that I have passed my state exam for football and will be recieveing my patch sometime soon. I can now call myself a certified official for football and I am very proud to be behind a state patch this year!
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Congratulations!
The thing to remember is this:
Officials are not special. As a group, we exhibit the exact same group dynamics and spread of competency as any other group. You will run into some bad officials, who make bad decisions for the wrong reasons. You will run into some great officials who really "get it" and understand how to do their job.
And you will run into the vast majority of officials who fall somewhere in between.
The trick isn't in making sure you are "right", as opposed to the boneheads you sometimes will run into. In fact, the best thing you can do about them is to forget them to the extent that it causes you *any* distress. It isn't worth getting worked up over them - their only value is as an object lesson about what not to do. And what you ought not to do is almost never really about some particular mechanic or even particular issue - it is about attitude and ego.
The real trick, the useful skill, is identifying those few exceptional officials, then stealing from them outrageously so you can become one of them. And the thing you will notice about them, once you figure out how to identify them, is that what sets them apart more often than not is their attitude and their ability to be self-critical.
JMO, of course. Best of luck in your continuing career.