Distance and Time Off
 

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.

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.

My closest Varsity game is a 5 minute walk. My farthest is about a 1.5 hour drive. Most are 20-45 minutes (one way).

If I had to drive over an hour to every game (at current rates), I probably wouldn't do it. It just wouldn't be worth the time.

When I did college, the range was farther but the pay was better and the actual number of games wasn't as much.


I don't have a job that I could take a lot of time off from. I can leave early some, but I wouldn't want to push it. That is a big reason I didn't purse staying in college....my day job was a lot more important and I really couldn't regularly take off after lunch to drive 3-5 hours to a game as some of them would have been and then get back so late with work the next morning.

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 :D ). 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.



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.

I live in Northern Virginia, so there are a good many schools in close proximity to my office and home. I probably have fifteen schools within 20 minutes of both locations. I usually don't have to drive more than 30 minutes to my games. That being said, every now and again I will have to go "way out there" and, due to traffic, have to go an hr. But typically, I do closer in games.

Former military that I am, I'm an early bird, and usually get to my Govt office by 0600. While I do work some long hrs, my bosses have been accommodating to my schedule, allowing me to leave when I need to on game days, as they understand my passion for the game. (In my case, realistically we're only talking 3-4 times a week for ten weeks or so).

I have been fortunate........except for the living in NVA traffic part! :p

LIke the last two respondents, I live in a population-dense area. I have 4 HS within 4 miles of my house (in three different conferences). 3 D-3 schools within about 7 miles. 8 d-3 within an hour, and another half-dozen or so NAIA schools. All of the D-3 and NAIA are in conferences that extend much farther, so there is some travel involved in those. a dozen or so JuCo within the same range. What we are lacking is D-2 schools -- ther'es one about 30 minutes away; the rest are much farther.

My general rule-of-thumb (and there are some exceptions) is that the round-trip distance in miles is less that then game fee in dollars (so for a $60 varsity fee, I will go thirty miles from home). I also commute to work by taking the train, so I usually drive to the train station that's most-convenient to the game site. It's easier to make that trip at 6 am than it would be at 6 pm

Most of my games are less than 40 minutes to drive, although we cover 2 schools that are 75 and 90 miles away.

I'm also at a tourney this weekend that I come to most years that takes 2 flights to get here. No roads going in or out.

And as far as work is concerned, I've got a fair amount of flexibility and a great boss.

You Can't Get There From Here (Traditional New England Saying)...
 

Longest trip for me (high school) is fifty-five miles (one way).

I live in a metro area with roughly 25 high schools within half an hour drive. We also serve some smaller outlying schools, with most of them within 45 minutes to an hour. Might be one or two that take 2 hours.

I have to schedule time off in advance, so in general, I will take a few Tuesday and Friday afternoons off during the winter.

Most schools are within a 45 minutes drive. Have about 10-15 schools within a ten minute ride. Anytime I'm traveling more than an hour it's probably a double header. Also, double header is often the case on a 40-60 minutes ride.

Everything considered, there's maybe one or two schools I'd rather not go to.

My work is 54 miles from my home...so I set my zip code in The Arbiter closer to work than home. As a result I get a lot of the outlying schools in our coverage area. This season (the first with this office location) I have driven an average of 30-45 minutes to a game. Now, many times that means I have a 1 1/2 hour drive home after the game.

Several members of senior management with this company have kids that play (or did play) basketball and they find it interesting that I officiate. I can usually take off as needed to get to my games...I just send an email to several people each week with the days (and times) I will be leaving the office early.

I work for 4 assignors in a densely populated area. I have a little flexibility in my schedule, but try not to abuse that.

Currently my Furthest is 45 miles - typical 25 miles. With rush hour that equates to 0:45 minutes to 1:15.

My absolute personal max would be 60 miles one-way for a 7:30 start.

Living in a fairly large city... travel TIME is more of a factor than travel DISTANCE.

Last Friday was 45 miles one-way... travel was about an hour to the school, and 50 minutes home.

Next week, I have a game that's 20 miles away, it will probably take me an hour to the school, and 35 minutes to get home.

I'd say most schools I work are within a 40 minute drive, even in the worst of rush hour.

My boss is pretty cool with scheduling, in my pre-varsity days, I'd often have to leave an hour or so early from work, and i'd either come in earlier in the morning or take an hour of vacation time... but then again, I have a salaried desk job. Now that I'm predominantly working JV/V doubleheaders, it's rare that I need to leave work early.

I don't do college ball, so I can't speak to that.

I don't mind driving for games.

I've worked games less than a mile away and I've driven over 100 miles to work a game, usually on a Friday night.

Friday I drove 85 miles one way to work a varsity game for $50. 2 teams ranked in the state and a tight game most of the way. Some think I'm crazy for doing this, but I enjoy it and have the flexibility to leave my office early to do it.

The vast majority of my games are from 45 minutes to an hour and a half at any level away. I did have a game that was about 10 miles away, but that is not usual. My travel times are not related to distance as much as traffic. I can be 20 miles away and take over an hour to get to the site depending on the route.

I am an independent contractor in my regular job/business, so I do not have an employer to answer like most. I just have to meet my requirements and appointments and I can easily work around my schedule and often my basketball schedule is set so far in advance, I do not do things when I am working games.

Peace

Closest game to me is a five-minute drive. I'm in a certain college town in Central VA so there are 3-4 schools in the immediate area and we cover all the adjacent counties plus a couple more. Most schools not in the immediate area are 30-40 minute drives away. Today I have to go to the furthest school we cover, which is about an hour-and-fifteen-minute drive one way. Luckily someone else from the crew is driving :D.

I work in the service industry so there is no "leaving the office early"--either I can work or I have to ask off. Fortunately my assigner is pretty good about getting assignments out in a timely manner. Most of the time I'm able to work day shift and still make it to my game with plenty of time to spare