To the Virginia officials ...
 

A board colleague of mine in Mass. (which is an IAABO state, FWIW), says he just (as in the last few weeks) made a move to to your state and already has a varsity schedule.

This marks the beginning of his third season (possibly 2nd?) and he has never done a varsity game. In fact, he has done very few high school games in general (10-15 at best; more likely single digits).

He is in his 20s, looks the part and is a voracious camp/clinic attender as well as a prolific summer official, though college assignors have so far declined to pick him up. He has average talent.

I know Va. is a large state and customs can vary from board to board, county to county, but does this seem plausible?

"Anything is possible" of course, but it struck me as odd that someone could so easily slide into varsity games in another state (particularly someone so inexperienced).

Thanks!

If the powers that be didn't ask for references and just asked him what level he felt he was at and ran with it, I could see this happening.

And if you're in a small enough area and hard up for officials, I could see this happening.

But most places, this is HIGHLY unlikely in my opinion.

Long time lurker, first time poster

I'm in Central VA and just accepted my first varsity assignment today. I'm in my second year of high school ball and don't think I'm anything special (I'm mainly doing this to stay close to the game), but I'm glad that my assigners think highly of me. Last year my schedule was middle and 9th grade with a few JV sprinkled in.

I don't think my association is particularly hurting for guys, but maybe that's the case. I don't really know

Depends what part of VA he is in. In Northern VA they have a couple evaluation games and they see what you got. For mine, you ref a game and tell them how long you've been in. There are quite a few associations (13), so it really depends who he is with.

I live in NVA and am in a very large Association (I caveat my comments by stating I am not on the Board and am stating what I observe, not what I know as exact fact).

IMO, it's tough to crack then V ranks here as there are a great many seasoned HS/College Officials in our ranks and not many vacancies to fill annually. We have a good many eager, young, good officials waiting for their opportunity. It's competitive. No shortage of officials here.

We have an extensive evaluation process for the junior officials and a camp (based on evaluations) to allow the F/JV officials to work their way up the ranks. Once these officials move up, they become "swing officials" - getting a game here and there when an opening happens due to a lot of games, illness, turn-back, etc.

We do get transfers in who are evaluated in the annual scrimmages, and if capable, can move right on in. I don't know how often it happens though, depends on the amount of openings I suppose. One of my partners last Tues (opening night) was a transfer from Texas and he had a BV game right out of the shoot.

I believe our officials are brought along at a fair pace (I'm sure if you asked some jr officials they would say it's too slow), and are seldom over their heads or thrown to the dogs at the V level due to a lack of capable officials.

Need a location.

Seems plausible. I went from doing my first CYO game on Dec. 8, 2012 to having 61 varsity games this year in my fourth season, all from working tons of summer ball and attending every camp I could find. That and reading The Official Forum. :D

By that description ... doesnt sound like anyone we have here in the Shenandoah Valley

The real test will be to see his schedule next season.

In some of the rural more spread out areas, they have had a tough time getting quality refs over the last several years when the move from 2 man to 3 along with the fact that Class A and AA girls bball was moved from fall to winter, coinciding with boys seasons. Too many games on same nights depletes the roster. The "better" refs get the better games and the others are left with the less experienced officials. Travel costs can sometimes exceed game fees, so some of the older, more experienced have just called it quits. Getting into one of these areas with any kind of ability could land you some varsity assignments quickly, although as someone else said, it will be obvious if a person is not ready for that level and he might get bumped back to JV to clean up some stuff.

At our last association meeting we were being lectured by the assignor for our blocks and "cherry picking games" (seems quite a few members are members of multiple associations and are turning back games if they get a "better" game from someone else).

Since we are in our first heavy tournament period we have a lot of games to fill. One night there were so few officials available the assignor had to give someone their first varsity game...it was the 4th game he has ever called.

Just depends on the area, the number of games to fill and the pool of available talent.

What does a varsity schedule mean? There is a world of difference between varsity skill levels. I've seen varsity teams that would lose by 100 points to a strong freshman club. Just getting a varsity game really doesn't tell me anything.

+1

This is an interesting point. Happened a lot in the pre-internet era of assigning, but decreased when assignors gravitated to the monopoly that we know of as Arbiter. Now that Arbiter is experiencing some competition from other applications, it stands to reason that the "game-shopping" problem is on the rise again.

Integrity. If you accept an assignment, honor it. If you're lucky, your assignor has a policy where if you're offered an upgraded game, all you have to do is contact him/her to ask for relief. Good assignors are happy to provide relief if they have replacements available.

Game-shopping and turnbacks, without approval, are a reputation killer. Your short-term gain will turn into a long-term loss.

Some good points, especially reputations being at stake.

I'm wondering why this is such an issue. If you block a lot of people, you don't get games. If you send games back, you don't get games. If you're arbiter is up to date then take what you get.

I also don't believe in blocking partners. It's so rare for there to actually be a good reason. I guess some association may have a ton of people with freakishly horrible social skills who just block everyone. No games for you.