[fiasco]

Someone's comments in another thread got me thinking about some of the facilities that are given to us to dress in.

In my area, there are a bunch of schools that are good, some that are mediocre, and a few that are just downright frustrating to go to.

The good: usually a coach's office with a separate bathroom and shower. Most of the schools around here take this approach. It works pretty well, except when people from the school feel they can walk in and out whenever they want. When it works out the best is when it's the AD's office and he's the only one with keys and he knows to leave us alone. One of the negative things about this in many schools is that you're a paper-thin door away from one of the team locker rooms in some situations. One night a partner of mine came into our dressing room at halftime and expressed his frustration with the H coach. Not a few seconds later, we hear him expressing his frustration right back at us. That wasn't a fun night.

The mediocre: several schools have us dress in the boys' locker room when we're doing a girls' game and the girls' locker room when we're doing a boys' game. Sometimes this works out fine, but for the JV guys, their dressing time almost always coincides with the end of practice. It can get hairy in some situations where game management isn't on the ball.

The bad: We have one school in my area where the officials' room is a 10x6 room with an attached bathroom but no shower. In that room is crammed a row of lockers and some IT equipment, making the area even more cramped. When the freshman and JV officials are getting out of their games and the varsity guys are getting ready for theirs, it makes for extremely cramped quarters. No shower means you either have to go home in your own sweat or request the AD to take you down to the coach's office to shower. You pass right by the visitor's locker room on the way. One game I had to pass by the JV coach who I had T'd up only a half hour earlier. Nothing happened, but I would prefer to not be put in that type of situation. The sad thing is that this is a brand new school.

The ideal: there is one school in the region that has a dedicated official's room, with its own entrance and a bathroom and shower. The room could be a little bigger to accommodate 6 officials at once, but I'll take it over being in a coach's office or a locker room where people are coming in and out and/or you're right next to the team's locker room.