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Old Fri Jan 15, 2016, 10:50am
Smitty Smitty is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 1,847
Quote:
Originally Posted by j51969 View Post
The big take-away here is getting to whatever the next level is for you. At some point what separates one official from the next is very minor. Court appearance and grooming standards may very well be the difference. Find out what is acceptable in your area. Two officials I work with on a regular basis are advancing in women’s college basketball. To include an invite to Patty’s camp this coming year. Both of them are extremely fit, have zero facial hair, and yes take off wedding rings. Even though it wouldn't be a concern in any of our HS games they do it because that’s what they do in college (muscle memory). IHSA has other ideas here in Illinois. If fitness and physical appearance mattered state finals official wouldn't look like that. But I'm not telling anyone who officiates in IL anything they don't already know. Even something as like how tall you are can matter. Both of them are under 6ft, so there is hope for us all.

P.S. One is African-American and one is Caucasian
Unless you are an assignor, I don't think you can identify what the criteria is for moving up the ranks. It's usually the people who aren't moving up as fast as they think they deserve that provide guesses as to what it takes to get there - and usually there are a lot of sour grapes in their guesses. I don't pretend to know why certain people move up and others don't. Around here, female officials move up exponentially faster than men. Do I know why or where that's coming from? No. Do they deserve to go to State 4 years after they started officiating over a guy who has been reffing for 15 years and is just as good? That's not up to me. I used to get upset about these things, but I don't anymore. These things are being decided based on factors I was not provided and no one asked my opinion. If I had stayed in Oregon, I would have likely gone to the State Tourney by now. I will never go to the State Tourney in Texas. That's life. All you can do is work hard, go to camps, be seen by as many influential people as possible, listen, get better, and hope you've impressed the right people.
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