I don't believe my league.....

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by WindyCityBlue


The "Peace" close doesn't bother me.

The fact that you believe that you and I said the same thing in our posts amazes all of us. No, we did not just say it differently. We are diametrically opposed in our philosophies. Maybe we can convince Peter that the word customer is a stretch, but his intent is obvious. The official is supplying a service to an end user. In many parts of the country, the end user IS the coach. Many small schools hire their officials directly. This responsibility is handled by an AD or the coach. They can and do care about what they are paying for. Some may not have much of a choice due to a limited official supply. But, they will object to poor service. Yes, our responsibility is ultimately to honor the game - not the players, as you alluded to in another post.

Well WCB, I actually started my career in a place where there were no assignors. Of course they cared who they paid for, but they did not have a lot of choices. Most just wanted to fill spaces on a piece of paper. Some of course were picky, other schools were not as much. But in the end, they need to fill spots. The ADs or coaches are not experts on officiating and if they were not careful, there would be officials that could not find an opening to fill. Of course they might do their best to hire the better officials around, but it was never a guarantee.

Originally posted by WindyCityBlue
In Chaicago and many metropolitan areas, the assisgnor take a lot of heat for supplying bad officials. As the adage goes, sh*t rolls down hill. The umpire will hear about it and may be removed. While some assignors may support and official and put him back on a contest when the coach has asked otherwise, he won't keep doing that if the coach keeps complaining. Don't be a fool. There are simply too many options and assignors are replaced regularly or the association might lose the league/school/conference.

I never suggested that they never listen to coaches, but you have to sometimes consider the source. Some coaches have a reputation as not being happy with anyone that comes their way. They still need to have umpires. They cannot scratch everyone. And in baseball there really are not a lot of choices. It is not like everyone can get to many places in the Metropolitian area and be at a school at 4:00pm that often. There are many who do not want to umpire HS Baseball for that very reason. I know I am one of the few that are willing to go to Warren and Marengo and I do not live 5 minutes from the field.

Originally posted by WindyCityBlue
You may not answer directly to the coach - from your responses here, it seems obvious that you don't care about image.

That is not true. I just do not sweat what people think on a discussion board. Because I have never had a coach even know or care what I post here. But they do care what calls you screw up on a baseball/football field or basketball court.

Originally posted by WindyCityBlue
However, if an umpire p*sses off the wrong coach, I guarantee that he will hear about it. When the coach escalates the issue past an assignor to a Board of Directors or tells his AD to get involved, heads will roll.

Well in baseball, they can let them roll all they want. But since it is obvious that umpires can pick up a full varsity schedule about a week before the Baseball Season starts, I think they do not a lot of leverage. Of course they can complain, but I have been working almost 10 years, and most umpires I work with at the HS level do not have half my experience. Of course you can work with a 20 year vet from time to time, but that is rare.

Look, your boy can call me all the names he likes. But I have never had an assignor or veteran official or umpire ever suggest the crap that Peter is trying to convince us here on this board. There is a Basketball Assignor in our area that openly admitted that the coaches every year vote to fire him. He has been assigning that conference almost 20 years if I am not mistaken. Every year. The ADs took away the coaches voting on this issues according to him.

I just was at a basketball camp tonight. In my last game of the night, one of the coaches was upset at the amount of fouls my partner's and I called. We called something like 28 fouls in the second half alone. We were being observed by D1 Officials, who is well known across the country and has worked a Final Four. The coach went to the head of the clinic and complained about the job we did. He said, "this was the worst experience I have had during a summer league." He went on to complain because of who was observing us, we called more fouls to impress the D1 Official. His comments were completely dismissed and laughed at. They did that because the coach had a very bad reputation for doing nothing but complaining about the officiating, no matter where or when it is. There were a couple of people that actually witnessed the game and agreed that not only should have called as many fouls, but we could have ejected a couple of kids. The game was very chippy and was not a real close game. Not once during my conversations with the Camp Director or the D1 Official did they suggest we care or accomidate this coach or these players. As a matter of fact, there attitude was bascially "screw em." Then they went on further to say, "he does that every time there is a game." In no way did they support this coach or agree with him. They basically wrote him off. I say all that to illustrate that we have many assignors that realize who and what they are dealing with. So it becomes obvious when a coach is just blowing smoke. It is also clear to many that some coaches are younger and they might still have that "Sophomore level" mentality. I have heard many assignor totally dismiss the feelings of coaches that are not considered immature in their complaints.

So if Peter wants to buy into that philosophy, that is his right. But the rest of us do not have to.

Originally posted by WindyCityBlue
Officials are considered independent contractors in many states. They provide a service for a fee. If you take the base of this description, the customer pays for a product. They demand value for their money and complain like any other consumer when it falls short.

Of course they pay, but that does not mean they control everything in the process. If they want to have sports, they are going to pay regardless of who comes to the field.

Peace