[timasdf]

I've worked in a handful of states. Some with assigners. Some without.

1. It's relatively easy to get a good schedule after the assigner and others in leadership see that you know what you are doing.

Even those schools with assigners sometimes contract directly...though usually on the sly. It's typically because the assigner doesn't have the motivation to find officials for the smallest / least influential schools. In those cases, the small schools find their own and it works (as long as the assigner isn't informed).


2. In the states where officials contract directly with schools, it's difficult to get started, but after coaches/ADs see that you are good, you will work pretty much the schedule you wish, because you will get so many offers. You can feel free to turn down matches you don't want, while accepting those that you prefer.

Wise officials will decline to work at the same school more than a couple times/year. It's simply not a good situation to work all of a single school's home matches.

My first year in a direct-contract state, I was working a total grab-bag schedule. By my third year, I was working conference tournaments and nearly every day of the week that I wanted...and also turning down matches in far-away locales. Often, I would have offers to work at multiple schools on the same date. When I moved to yet another state, I left behind high school assignments scheduled 3+ years in advance! I arranged for excellent officials to cover all of them.