[JAdams]

Over the last two years I have moved from mostly JV level to mostly varsity, so I can see this issue from both sides. Let me ramble on a bit...

In our area (as many areas, I'll bet) there seems to be a core of 20-year+ veterans. Most (not all) of these veterans couldn't care less about the education of the less-experienced officials. They will arrive for their varsity game in the third quarter of the JV game, head right to the locker room, and never really watch the JV officials work their game. When the JV game is over, if one of the JV guys asks for feedback, the varsity guys usually have nothing (constructive or otherwise) to say, because they didn't watch. There's a little bit of haughtiness in effect with the varsity officials, too, so most JV guys don't even ask.

Now, on the other hand, I have also noticed that most JV officials don't stick around to watch the varisty game. So they're passing up an opportunity to learn by watching.

The combination of these two things means that there is very little interaction between (most) varsity officials and (most) JV officials.

I was fortunate because two varsity officials took me under their wing during my first two years and helped me through the mental and physical learning process. I am so grateful to those two guys... I might well have bailed if were not for them.

What't the answer here? I try to quietly help junior officials the same way the two senior guys did for me. A little here, a little there... maybe we'll all get better with time.