Interesting poll on ESPN

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I apologize in advance for the long and winding post.

My first opinion is a very biased opinion. I think basketball is the easiest to officiate and here is why: I am 59 years old, I know I don't look a day over 69, and I started playing basketball when I was 9 years old. My school district's boys' basketball coach was my next door neighbor and his 2 sons and 2 daughters and my sister and I were all in the same age group and we grew like brothers and sisters. He and his wife were like second parents to my sister and I and my parents were like parents to his children. He was a great coach winning 378 games against 122 losses, and 16 league championships in 21 years (I played on 2 of them.). Of all of his players, many thought that I would be the one that would go into coaching (two of his players did go into coaching and were very successful girls' H.S. coaches in the Youngstown, Ohio, area), but I went to engineering college and went into officiating instead, because very few people outside of his players knew that from his college days right after WW2 until he retired from coaching in 1970-71, he was an OhioHSAA registered basketball official. He was a founding member (1948) of the Trumbull Co. Bkb. Off. Assn. in Warren, Ohio; I joined in 1971-72 and have been a member ever since. When asked why he was a basketball official he always said that if you do not know the rules of the game you can not teach the game. If one were to have observed our practice sessions for guarding and screening, one would have thought that they were watching a basketball officials camp instead of a basketball team's practice. Basketball officiating came as easy to me as drinking water (now I prefer Rolling Rock, ). I think it is because of my basketball background.

My second opinion is not biased but based on logic. I agree with Jeff, and his reasoning for why basketball is probably the most difficult to officiate. I do not officiate football but there is no way one would find me on a football field; I think that it is the most difficult sport to officiate.

I umpire baseball and softball and I found the most difficult thing for me was calling balls and strikes. I did not play baseball; when I was in H.S. boys' golf was a Spring sport in Ohio and my basketball coach was the boys' golf coach (he was the girls' golf coach in the Fall and therefore coached all of his children as well as my sister in me in golf and the boys in basketball). Calling balls and strikes did not come naturally to me, where as, Mark, Jr., played baseball, he had no trouble acquring the skill to calling balls and strikes in either sport.

Rules wise, I think that basketball is the easiest to make interpretations but that is a biased opinion becasue of my background (But it is my opinion that the rules have become more obtuse in certain situation because of some of the goofing rules that have been adopted, such as AP, but that is thread all to itself. I think that football is probably the most difficult with baseball and softball a close second.

Now lets talk about soccer, . I have officiated H.S. futbol. It is my position that if one is a competent H.S. basketball official, then one can be a competent H.S. soccer official too. The rules are even easier than basektball and the actual officiating is not different that basketball. Sorry soccer guys, just my two cents.

MTD, Sr.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

I apologize in advance for the long and winding post.

You should just make this your signature, Mark.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

You should just make this your signature, Mark.

Snaqs:

You know me. No one makes a short story long better than me, .

MTD, Sr.