Recruitment and Retention of Officials

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by lewpert

...At the end of the season I was told by two assignors that I would need to attend their camps if I wanted to get better/more games from them. Really, pay upwards of $250 so I can get games in your conferences while they pocket the $$$ from the camps I’m doing games in. After 24 years that was more than I could tolerate. Now I pay my $5, sit in the stands & enjoy the games while those poor zebras, that paid good coin to attend the “good old boys” camps, struggle on the floor. Sorry, until the state associations step in & provide some modicum of sanity, good officials are going to walk away. I love the game; I played it, coached it & officiated it; now I just watch it.

Originally Posted by Dad

I hate to hear about this kind of stuff. Hope you continue to enjoy the game, bud.

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.