Four’s Company ...

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Dad

To be fair, this is entirely different.

To move up in our association you need to get three reviews throughout a single year. I have no problem with helping officials.

It's different only in degree.

[Refhoop]

Four’s Company

No, this is not a sequel to the late 1970’s, early 1980’s, television show, Three’s Company, adding a fourth character to the trio of Janet Wood, Chrissy Snow, and Jack Tripper. Rather, it’s about the importance of having four officials at the site of a typical junior varsity, varsity, doubleheader. There are educational, practical, and professional reasons for having four officials at the game site.

The four officials at a high school game site should work together as a team to educate each other. Varsity officials should arrive at the game site no later than the beginning of the second period of the junior varsity game, to observe the junior varsity officials. Veteran officials should offer constructive appraisals, with specific suggestions, to the less experienced officials. Junior varsity officials should stay and observe the varsity game until at least halftime of the varsity game, in order to learn by watching more experienced officials. Less experienced officials should seek out, and ask for input, from more experienced officials. "So? What did you see out there?” is an easy way to start a pregame, halftime, or postgame conversation. The continuing education and improvement of officials are vital to the continued success of the Board.

There are also practical reasons for having four officials at the game site. The overlap will insure that an official is available if one of the officials at the site becomes ill or injured. In rare cases, an official may be late to the game due to unexpected traffic conditions, a flat tire, dead battery, etc. In extremely rare cases, an official may not show up for a game due to a miscommunication or a scheduling error. The Board does have One Person Mechanics Guidelines in place, but it is best if we have two officials working every game.

The third reason for having four officials at a game site deals with professionalism. If principals, athletic directors, site directors, and coaches do not observe an overlap of officials over the course of a junior varsity, varsity doubleheader, they may get the impression that the officials simply want to “get in, get out, and get paid”. This is not the impression that Board members want to give. School personnel at the game site notice such things as junior varsity officials and varsity officials, observing each other and discussing the game at pregame, halftime, or postgame.

For many years, it was a Board policy to have varsity officials show up early to observe, and rate, the junior varsity officials and to have the junior varsity officials stay to observe, and rate, the varsity officials. Recent changes in the Board rating system has done away with the need for officials to rate nonpartner officials, but that doesn't do away with the need for four officials to be at the game site for as long as reasonably possible. According to the Board 2015-16 Member Expectations Policy, “Varsity members arrive early to observe subvarsity officials and subvarsity officials remain to observe varsity officials”. Officials acting in this manner will solidify the reputation and continued success of the Board as “The Best”.[/QUOTE]

Pretty well written!
I am not privy to the format of your newsletter, but it may be helpful to some readers if the educational, practical, and professional reasons were in a bullet format with your definition/explanations/illustrations to follow: First educational.... leading me to practical... and concluding with professional or something like that?
I love that you only have three things: 1,2,3 and A,B,C are always easy enough for me. Well done!

Regarding the actual subject - which is what "Dad" seems to take issue with:
I'm grateful my association isn't run this way. This feels a little heavy-handed.... but if you're training and producing good officials: "When in Rome" baby!

[Dad]

Originally Posted by Rich

New officials working subvarsity HS games are not guys that, typically, learn nothing by observing more experienced officials -- if they're looking for items to take away.

I agree that having this as written policy is absurd, however.

Agreed, but it highly depends on the association:

Do you have a good varsity official pool?
Who's good and who isn't?
Who has a bad habit newer guys will pick up?
What should you be looking for?

For a newer official it's so hard to get a good foundation, especially if you don't have much experience with the game.

[Dad]

Originally Posted by Adam

It's different only in degree.

You get to research and choose two movies a year you think will be worth your time and be able to take some joy out of it.

You have to watch every movie that comes through a theater and despise movies for the rest of your life.

Are degrees fair here?

[Refhoop]

Pretty well written!
I am not privy to the format of your newsletter, but it may be helpful to some readers if the educational, practical, and professional reasons were in a bullet format with your definition/explanations/illustrations to follow: First educational.... leading me to practical... and concluding with professional or something like that?
I love that you only have three things: 1,2,3 and A,B,C are always easy enough for me. Well done!

Regarding the actual subject - which is what "Dad" seems to take issue with:
I'm grateful my association isn't run this way. This feels a little heavy-handed.... but if you're training and producing good officials: "When in Rome" baby![/QUOTE]

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Dad

You get to research and choose two movies a year you think will be worth your time and be able to take some joy out of it.

You have to watch every movie that comes through a theater and despise movies for the rest of your life.

Are degrees fair here?

Am I a movie reviewer by trade?

[Dad]

Originally Posted by Adam

Am I a movie reviewer by trade?

Ouch

You 1: Me 0

[BillyMac]

Thanks for the help with the format, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. guys.

After sending a copy to the upper-ups in my local board, they requested that I not publish the article, that this reminder about our board policy (even after changes in our ratings system) should come from somebody way above my pay scale, so I turned the article over to them. They may publish it under their names (more clout), or they may use the article as an outline for discussion at a future board meeting.

It's now in their hands (frankly, where it belongs). My intention all along was to bring the existing policy to the attention of our membership, it doesn't matter to me how it gets there.

You guys that helped me didn't waste your time. I sent them a nice final draft of the article to work from. Thanks.

[Dad]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Thanks for the help with the format, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. guys.

After sending a copy to the upper-ups in my local board, they requested that I not publish the article, that this reminder about our board policy (even after changes in our ratings system) should come from somebody way above my pay scale, so I turned the article over to them. They may publish it under their names (more clout), or they may use the article as an outline for discussion at a future board meeting.

It's now in their hands (frankly, where it belongs). My intention all along was to bring the existing policy to the attention of our membership, it doesn't matter to me how it gets there.

You guys that helped me didn't waste your time. I sent them a nice final draft of the article to work from. Thanks.

Now write an article on why you should be doing 3man.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Dad

Now write an article on why you should be doing 3man.

Such an article would be directed at (get ready for a surprise) coaches. Here, in Connecticut, it's the coaches, actually the basketball coaches in the state coaches association, that are preventing the expansion of three person crews throughout most of the state.

The coaches lobby is very strong here in Connecticut, and the state interscholastic sports governing body doesn't take a step without their approval. The basketball coaches are lead by the winningest coaches, they're the most vocal, and for the most part, they all play very up tempo, full court, in your face, man to man defense, and they all believe (right, or wrong) that a third official will stifle this coaching philosophy.

It's not the athletic directors, or principals. It's not about money (it may be a little bit about money). It's not about training officials (just give us some lead time). The winningest, and most powerful, coaches don't want three person crews, so they don't get three person crews.

[Dad]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Such an article would be directed at (get ready for a surprise) coaches. Here, in Connecticut, it's the coaches, actually the basketball coaches in the state coaches association, that are preventing the expansion of three person crews throughout most of the state.

The coaches lobby is very strong here in Connecticut, and the state interscholastic sports governing body doesn't take a step without their approval. The basketball coaches are lead by the winningest coaches, they're the most vocal, and for the most part, they all play very up tempo, full court, in your face, man to man defense, and they all believe (right, or wrong) that a third official will stifle this coaching philosophy.

It's not the athletic directors, or principals. It's not about money (it may be a little bit about money). It's not about training officials (just give us some lead time). The most powerful coaches don't want three person crews, so they don't get three person crews.

This is really interesting and I'm not sure what to make of it.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Dad

This is really interesting and I'm not sure what to make of it.

Our state interscholastic sports governing body doesn't mandate three person crews until the quarterfinal round of the state tournament.

Here, in my local area, we may use three person crews for a few league, or conference, finals. Regular season games? Very few, and far between, maybe for a few big city, or Catholic high school, rivalries.

The rest of Connecticut? I used to think that one of the other Connecticut local boards did a lot of three person regular season games, but I was recently informed by a Connecticut colleague that I was, sadly, mistaken.

[BryanV21]

So the officials get very little, if any, work doing 3-man mechanics before the biggest games of the year?

Yeah... that makes a ton of sense.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BryanV21

So the officials get very little, if any, work doing 3-man mechanics before the biggest games of the year?

Exactly. I observed an outstanding young official last year who worked his first state tournament quarterfinal game on the same night that he worked his first three person game. His partners did a lot of pointing, telling him where to go. He's a bright young man, a quick learner, had a great game, but it still didn't make a lot of sense.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by BryanV21

So the officials get very little, if any, work doing 3-man mechanics before the biggest games of the year?

Yeah... that makes a ton of sense.

In many of the areas that make the switch to 3-person for the playoffs or the latter rounds of the postseason the lack of experience with the system is solved by bringing in college officials to work those contests.
Most of those officials will have worked significantly fewer high school games during the season than a high school-only official and the college game is called a little differently too. So this leads to a debate on the fairness of assigning playoff games to such officials. Does the association/state office reward the HS official for all of his effort the whole season or does it put the guy more familiar with the 3-person system out there for the biggest games of the year? What do the coaches want? I've heard the coaches complain that the playoff games are called differently from the regular season contests. I believe that they are correct, but I don't think that they fully grasp why. The explanation is two-fold. First, having a third official allows the crew to observe more and so more gets whistled. Secondly, the officials are mostly not the same people that they've seen all season. The college officials do call the game somewhat differently as they are used to emphasizing different aspects.