Observation: Impediments to Moving Up

[j51969]

Originally Posted by Smitty

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.

My grapes aren't sour.

I never said I was an authority on anything. I merley offered the opinion that all things being equal little things matter. Take that for what you will. As for a female with 4 years of experience making it to a state final? If she and the 15 year guy are equally proficient, why not? Basketball is a diverse sport and the officiating should reflect that. If she isn't ready, or not equally qualified then that's a different conversation all together. Their will always be those who feel slighted by the system no matter what your profession. My comments were not geared toward them.