My point to the OP that I didn’t make succinctly is, once you get your younger crop cultivated work with the state association. It’s their high schools, they should be going to games & providing feedback to the officials & the assigners. Don’t let assigners that try to extort money for games ruin or frustrate kids working their way up. It does no good to recruit if you can’t retain.
As for me, I didn’t leave the game because of $250, I left the game when it became apparent that greasing the correct skids meant more than ability on the court. Integrity should still stand for something, especially in the officiating fraternity.

Are you serious? Perhaps $250 is a bit much for a high school camp, but why should they be free or nearly free? When you work a game you expect to get paid, why wouldn't the clinicians and camp organizers expect to get paid for their time and effort as well?

Perhaps my experience has been different, but I wouldn't calling it greasing the right skids. When I was trying to work high school ball, I knew I was going to have to attend each assignors camp if I wanted to work games in their leagues, and that practice continued at the college level. Every level or conference I wanted to work in I knew what was involved and that the best and in many cases the only way to get in to that league or level was attend the right camps. Did you really expect to get games without going to the assignors or associations camp?

I honestly hate this kind of system. I got D2 games before I had my first varsity game in my first association. I got lucky getting into an amazing association my second time around. Earning varsity games is a must, imo. Going through hoops that aren't good identifiers of good officials is silly.

Luckily for those that move here (Portland, OR), they can almost jump in where they left off. They'll have to do a half-dozen or so games at the JV level and do some paperwork to go through the process but, if they're truly capable, they'll be doing varsity, and even some pretty good varsity in some cases, within a few weeks. The only trouble for some is that the claims of their abilities are sometimes above reality or maybe they were a top official where they came from but they moved from somewhere with really weak officials.

If you move that much, you can't really expect too much. They have to have a chance go observe you before you can expect to move very high. Sounds like you kept moving before they had a chance to move you through their system. Moving up to where you belong can happen, and should in a reasonable time, but even 1 season in a new area isn't that out of line in order to qualify to move up. It isn't like they made you start over on a 5+ year process to move up....or did they tell you that?

First couple states/associations I was new, so no issues there. Of the subsequent four, two basically made me start the process from scratch and could have cared less about my résumé or what they saw from camps/clinics. Kansas....awesome. Went to camps, got fair evaluations over the summer, and got a full varsity schedule on year #1. The last state (the one I'm in now) was a little like what you described in Portland, except instead of six weeks of JV ball it was basically a whole season of it. I kind of felt like I was being "used" to cover the JV schedule because I was new and there weren't many JV officials to go around. Fortunately that problem has eased the last two years, but there is still a mix of JV games in my schedule that are hard to shake. On the bright side, I've had a chance to mentor some young officials which is rewarding. So all in all not a bad schedule; I'm not complaining.

I hope when I retire I can do like BNR and stay in jealousy-inducing physical shape while finally establishing solid roots somewhere.

I wish my stomach was in as good of shape as my lungs [emoji6] Video is unforgiving. But thanks.

I contribute my late in life success to be willing to learn new tricks. I absorb game mgmt from the vets, but everything I do physically (running/positioning/movement/table presentation) on the court is emulating what I see the up and comers doing, especially the young D-League types.

And I know there is some controversy with the 2 most prominent officials who reside on the Southside, but those 2 know how to teach.

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I agree. Yes, the camera doesn't like me either. I feel your pain. LOL!

FYI - make sure that you hit the hospitality room today. I left plenty.

Going up earlier than usual specifically for that[emoji41]

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So if I ever move back to Portland I'll get good games. Good to know! :p