(Here's my rant for the week as an assigner who also has 5 games of his own this week as well as a full-time day job.)

Know what your assigner sees as an "upgrade."

I recognize all these things are local, but...

For me "varsity basketball game" is a class upon itself. Someone wanting to get off to work bigger schools, boys versus girls, or closer to home....is going to find themselves not working for me for long. Same for those who drop me for college games without asking me first or bringing me a qualified sub. I want you to work your college game, but don't expect me to assign the same game TWICE. I get paid to assign it ONCE.

I had a partner tell me "something came up" last year. I drove my hour plus to my game and on the way home stopped for a bite. Watching the highlights, I saw that original partner working at another school closer to home. When I assigned my conference last summer, one of my officials listed him as a preferred partner (I tend to hire crews when I can) and I said, "Find someone else."

Just this week I've dealt with:

(1) A crew on Monday saying, "Sorry for the short notice, but we have a college game on Thursday and won't be able to work your game..." No subs, no "is this OK" from them, nothing. Just...."here you go"

With most of the area working 3-person crews now, few good officials have nights off. It's harder to find subs than it was just a few years ago.

(2) A crew double-booked and dumped my game 2 days before it was due to be played. They signed my contract 9 months before the other one and "just realized" that they were double booked. Then they told me that the other assigner told them that he really needed them and since I didn't say anything, they were going with that game. How could I say anything? I found out they were double booked from OTHER PEOPLE who called me to let me know -- I didn't find out from them until the next day.

A small minority of officials think that their schedule is the only thing in the world and that I sit at their beckon call to find replacements when they feel like not working. People that are high maintenance like that could be the best damned officials in the world, and I am much better off without them.

As an assigner, I would rather have a reliable average official than a great one who gets rid of half my games.

Good rant Rich and well said!

I always feel badly for my Assignor when it snows and schools are closed, especially for multiple days, and he has to re-assign a lot of games - especially toward the end of the season when time gets compressed due to playoffs. Of course, that's why you get paid the BIG $$$!

Good luck the rest of the yr.

Well, I live in Virginia. It's about a $22-25/game difference and means you are working 3-man instead of 2-man.

A good reason not to have contracts for individual games signed 9 months in advanced. No way in the world would my personal schedule allow me to know that far in advance that I will be available on that particular date. That's especially impossible to do for anybody who works college games as we start getting our schedules in October and are still receiving games through November.

Weird payment system if 3man V gets 22-25 more per official than 2man JV

That's normal as far as I know. Don't know of any place that pays the same for JV as it does for Varsity.

I agree with Rich's views. In our area there are three high school associations. All have agreed that if an official has dual membership they must declare it to everyone. There are discussions going in with our board that we will not allow membership in another high school association and if it is discovered that a member turned back a game to work what they perceived to be a better game from someone else we will pull the remainder of their high school schedule.

Seems like it is becoming a significant problem.

I didn't say the same. It's 3man verse 2man

I second the comments of my colleague from another part of this great Commonwealth.

For my schools, the 2 JV officials get $20 less than the 3 varsity officials do. I would like to see that difference be *greater*, not smaller.

Except they picked a different varsity game over mine. No excuse for that at all.

Our system is just different here. I assigned 2016-17 this past July. I leave some openings for transfers and people I see at camps, etc. but not many.

I'm happy to work with college officials. I know what they bring to the table and most of them work a dual schedule. But a small minority want to accept games and then at the last minute dump them in my lap thinking that I'll just deal with it because they're too good to fire.

I have to get off games as my day job requires occasional travel. I always find a sub and give that name to the assigner with my apologies. Now, it's just a matter of sending out a replacement contract, updating my master schedule, and notifying the school -- something I can do in about a minute.

per official or overall cost?

Per official.

Around here, too many people are happy to work JV close to home (the schools assign those games themselves), never get better, never advance....make their money and be home by 7:30PM. I can't remember the last time I saw a JV official stay and even watch the first half of my game.

Wasn't thinking along this line, well said.

I've only blocked one person. It isn't because he is a bad official. In fact, he is one of our best. I blocked him because of some extremely unprofessional behavior he demonstrated in game where he went out to buy a bus, drove it onto the court, and proceeded to run it back and forth over me, then got out and threw the keys at me.