Distance and Time Off

[JetMetFan]

Originally Posted by frezer11

Curious about normal operating procedures where some of you all work regarding a couple topics. First off: Distance. What is the furthest you routinely (so not rare instances, but rather typical assignments) travel for HS games? How about JUCO games? D1 I would assume is considerably further. My closest possible varsity game is 15 minutes, but everything after that is over an hour, with the furthest being a little over 3 hours drive. JUCO up to 4.

My world (NYC/North NJ) is a bit more condensed than yours (Wyoming)...at least I hope it is For HS I typically travel 25-35 miles since I live in NJ but do the lion's share of my games in NYC (side note...Camron knows this thanks to Reftown ). That works out to 45 mins to an hour of driving. Anything more than 35 miles gets rough because of rush-hour traffic.

JUCO is 50 miles max. With the number of officials in the two regions I cover (XV and XIX) there's no need to go further. I have 15 JUCOs within 50 miles so that's more than enough work.

My D2 and D3 assignors tend to keep me within a 90-minute drive of my house. That means either south NJ or eastern PA. I'm also going to try out for a conference that would take me into southern CT. Distance is how I determine who I try out for at the D2/D3 level. If there are four schools within 100 miles I'll go for it. The longest D3 trip I've made is 150 miles/2½ hours but that was my first year in the conference and I'm sure my assignor wanted to see if I would do it.

Originally Posted by frezer11

2nd, do your employers work with you as far as time off is concerned? (I'm a teacher, so while I'm more interested in those responses, I'd like to see others' responses as well to think about from an assigner's POV.) Do you have to take personal time or is not a big deal? I'm lucky enough to teach in a district that has been very supportive and will work with me to find "creative coverage" of my classes when possible.

I'm a "perma-lancer" at my job so I can take time when I need it. I give my employer a calendar with my availability based on my game schedule and go from there. I also work overnights which means I have a lot of extremely sleepy work shifts.