Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyMac
Correct, to a point. I don't know what things are like in your little section of Rome, but here, in my little corner of Connecticut, most middle school games get rookie officials (granted, not usually for championship games).
Around here, rookie officials have passed both a written rules test, and a mechanics floor exam. Passed, not necessarily with an A+. Also, by the first week of February, some of our rookie officials, depending on their weekday afternoon availability, may have had only a few games, if any, under their belts.
Yes, a middle school coach should expect a rookie official to visually count ten seconds, but just because they should know it, doesn't mean that they're going to do it. They've got to learn somewhere. Rookies sure as hell aren't going to learn their trade working high school varsity games. So where else to better "screw up" than in a middle school game, "competitive", "varsity", or otherwise.
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Billy,
In Central Ohio, the Catholic League MS games are almost ALL done by HS varsity officials that also do Catholic League HS games. The "rookies" are assigned 4th - 6th grade games -- frequently with varsity HS partners.
In the largest MS conference in town, MOST of the games are done by Varsity HS officials. Once again, MOST of the "rookies" do the 4th - 6th grade recreational league games.
JR, while I agree that coaches should indeed be showing good sportsmanship, in our MS leagues, we expect the officials to have some idea as to what they are doing. Getting STUPID AND LOUD is going to cause many a MS coach to react in a frustrated manner.