[JRutledge]

I really think you missed the point. If you think that quoting the rulebook back and forth, up and down is going to help you one bit in officiating, then you are not going to ever see anything other than HS ball. It is just a fact, the more and more you officiate, the less and less that rulebook is going to save you. I officiate 4 sports and the rulebook and my knowledge does very little in the bigger picture in all of them. Officiating is a sales job, that is all. If your uniform is together and you "look the part," you can almost screw up a few times and little might even be said. I have walked away from games totally unhappy with the job I did, and had coaches and AD think I am the best official sense the wheel was invented. Rulebook knowledge has only been a little part on any evaluation form that I have ever seen in a camp. I think appearance, positioning, mechanics, are looked at much more than you lovely rules knowledge. I think you need to pick up Referee Magazine this month and read a couple of the articles in their and you will see "sprit of the rules" metioned more than once. But do not take my word for it, see for yourself.

And if taking an unpopular stance makes some of you upset (because it surely does not upset or even bother me) than you need to get some self-esteem and worry about yourself. I am not here to make everyone happy, I do not go through life and do that. I am here to share knowledge and debate different issues that most of us face. I grew up with the saying "there is more than one way to skin a cat," well that applies here. I went to several camps this year and not one, and I mean NOT ONE of the clinicians agreed on everything and all the philosophies that each other preached about how to run and handle a game. Put your little ego aside and get over it. I do recall that several individuals agreed with me and disagreed with me. We are in the United States of America not the old Soviet Union that is what we are suppose to do, disagree.