Female Officials Officiating Boys Basketball
 

How many of you have seen female officials officiating varsity boys basketball? I ask because this season in Minnesota we had history made as the 1st female official worked the boys state tournament. And FWIW this official is one of the best officials in the state and prior to this season had worked several girls tournaments in a row and IIRC that included a couple of finals.

The NCAA Women's Division 1 East region Observer officiated boys games in my High School Association when I first started officiating. In fact she officiated Division 1 men's basketball one year for one mid major.

However, her top protégé quit officiating high school basketball because she wasn't allowed to work boys basketball.

I believe in the past women have officiated in the state tournament on the boys side here in Virginia. However this year I know for a fact no women officiated boys games in the state tournament.

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I see it occasionally. Almost always during the regular season. I think I've seen it once during the playoffs.

This is a sticky subject. That said, I can't speak for the VHSL state tournament this year because I didn't go. Locally, there have been only 2-3 women working boys varsity games in the last couple of years, and only a few games per season at that. This is a little disappointing to me, to be honest. I think more have the desire and ability; our board has a healthy number of female officials (I don't know the percentage but overall I think it's about 10%).

That said, I also have to think of this from the mindset of the assignor. Some obstacles will always be there....athleticism, poise, conviction to handle the ever-present sexism of some coaches, etc. Some women (many of them good officials) leave before they advance to varsity because other life priorities take precedence. And frankly some women move into the college women's ranks, and a college paycheck is better than a HS paycheck any day. Once you're doing a nice D3 or D2 women's schedule....and rightfully feeling validated by that....the desire to be validated by doing HS boys basketball may not be as strong anymore.

I don't think we have too many female officials in this forum (perhaps underscoring the issue), but if we do I'd love to hear if my thoughts are accurate or way off base.

Oregon has had a female official work a boys state final at the 5A level (6A is the top).

My association up in Central VA sent 17 or 18 officials to the Final Four, and 7 crews to the quarter-finals, but not a single one of them was a woman.

Your association easily sent the most female officials to the quarter-final super sites.

I assign women to work boys games. If coaches have a complaint they have to be really careful how they present it to me, that's for certain.

What would you do if a coach or school told you that they didn't want any female officials for their boys contests?

What would you do if a coach or school told you that they didn't want any male officials for their girls contests?

I wouldn't honor either request.

I inquired because someone previously posted on this forum that this situation occurred in his area and the request was honored.

I am more than just a basketball assigner for my schools. I receive emails about officials from coaches, but I don't maintain black lists.

I doubt any of my schools would make such a request. My ADs are good people and just wouldn't.

I would t have enough females to put all girls on any games. Most people here work in crews.

I did tell a female that I would schedule her as part of an all female crew for a boys game if the schedules work out.

I would tell them I didn't want any male coaches for girls contests and no female coaches for male contests.

Locally, it's a regular occurrence, even in the playoffs.

Something about this statement really rubs me the wrong way. Concerns related to athleticism, poise, and handling coaches are something that can be a true for ANY official, regardless of the officials gender or the gender of the players.

It happens here, but not very often at all. Part of it is because it is clear that many will not give females a chance, they just never put in the effort. But it has happen a few rare times, but never in the playoffs that I can tell yet. And one reason it does not happen in the playoffs, is because they do not get assigned during the regular season. Again the path for a female official to the state finals is a lot quicker and easier on the girls side. So I do not see a lot of women even wasting their time trying to get those games.

Peace

I know three different women who have worked boys Washington state finals in the last five ish years, and that's just the ones I know personally...

I've worked with a couple of female officials at the boys level. Our assignor has shown no qualms about putting female officials on boys games. I see a lot of them at the lower divisions and not an uncommon occurrence at the varsity level. I don't see a ton of them working at our highest classifications, but there are several who work those levels consistently, but yet are also very qualified and capable of handling those games.

I had a BV at our 4A level this year with a female official. Talked to her before the game and that was her first time at that level. We did our usual pregame and I asked her if she had any issues callings boys games before. She didn't but also did detect some uneasiness with some players and coaches. Told her for better or worse that may be a regular occurrence until they see what you can do on the court.

Did tell her because she was small'ish (5'5 like) that her mechanics and presentation need to be much 'bigger' than her stature. All the more reason to look confident, move confident, act confident etc...If she can do that and her calls are what they should be she'll be fine. To her credit she did this. Her calls were fine and she didn't appear timid at all. Now a couple of times she did get sucked in as trail and when a steal occurred she was in a horrible position and was beat down the court, but that was a product of not seeing this type of speed on a regular basis.

I have no problems calling a boys game with a female official provided they are capable of handling such a game.

It's common place in Arkansas for women to ref boys games. I haven't really thought to pay attention, but I am pretty sure women have worked boys games in the state tournament


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I'd mention they might want to speak to their district attorney. This has lawsuit written all over it.

I kind of find it hard to believe that anyone would ask this and not understand the ramifications. I can't think of one thing that would prevent a woman from officiating a boys game. Conventional thought might say it's physical but If you feel a woman can't officiate a boys game for physical reasons, I can show you a roster full of fat men that can't either.

Even with stricter enforcement and new emphasis on reducing physicality to promote freedom of movement, there is a big difference in how the boys and girls games are played, and the expectations for how much physicality is expected and/or accepted. Around here, you do not have to work both boys and girls games, even at the HS level. In fact most officials do not work both. I wouldn't say there would be a problem with a female working a boys game here, it happens, although very rarely, the problem would be with a girls official, female or male, working a boys game. The perception, and most often the reality is that it is very difficult to move back and forth between both. Many officials, regardless of sex, would have a hard time adjusting to the speed and physicality of the boys game, if the overwhelming majority of their games were girls games.

It wasn't a female trying to officiate a boys game, but we had a similar situation a few years ago in the IL 2A state championship game. A school from the Chicago Catholic League, that played up tempo, physical basketball, and who normally competed against and was competitive with much larger schools, was in that game. The officials were three men from an area of the state where they would hardly, if ever, see basketball at that speed, athleticism, and physicality. The officials were completely overmatched and rapidly lost control of the game. Many videos from that game were posted on this site.

Bottom line, for most officials, it isn't a matter of how good you may be, like most people, one is going to be a creature of habit. Through them into a radically new environment, and most are going to sink.

Could a female work boys games consistently around here. Of course she could, but she would have to commit to working almost exclusively boys games from early in her career. If she was good, she would move up the ranks, but much slower on the boys side. We have more officials interested in working boys games than girls games, so she would have more competition. Because she could move up much faster on the girls side, most female officials in this area choose working girls games.

Not surprising, you said this better than me.

Peace

Vive La Différence ...
 

I sometimes have a tough time adjusting from a girls game on a Thursday night to a boys game on a Friday night. Yet, I have absolutely no problem doing the opposite (a girls game the next night after a boys game).

This was the first time in my career I didn't have to do a single girls game at all. And I loved it.

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Great post, but I think the bold text could be over-looked or skimmed over. While the majority of my games are mens, I have no problem switching back and forth. As long as you're used to the tempo then I really see no problem, but it's why I think good officials should get a taste of it, even if they want to solely do women's basketball. Then again, I love watching games in 1.5x-2x and attempting to officiate.

BNR's post is an opinion held by many officials and I have no problem with it. Personally, I enjoy doing both, usually, but there's probably some bias because over the last two years we've had an abnormal amount of D1 players on the women's side.

I do not think that it is even about adjusting to calling the game, it is the standards that is also expected that tend to be very different as well.

I worked a game last year I believe that was a girls game and the coach went nuts over a play where his player went up for a shot and the only thing the defender touched was their loose part of their jersey on the shooter. The coach insisted that had to be a foul. If I had called that foul in a boys game, I would have been damn near crucified. I would rather not deal with the expectation that any girl that falls or is touched we must have a foul. That alone is the reason I accept no girls games. Girls can dribble through 3 defenders and coaches and players act like not calling a foul is a tragedy.

Peace

Hmm, good point and I never really looked at it this way. I call both fairly similar and just deal with coaches if needed. I did have an argument in a big game this year with a "d1 women's official" who made a call right in front of me. His reasoning was we have to have a foul if a girl falls to the floor. He wouldn't budge after I threw logic at him for five minutes during half-time. I eventually just gave up.

I thought that you didn't work girls basketball. You've written on this forum several times how you don't have to in your area and refuse to do so.

One of the most important things in officiating is consistency, and this is what many of the posts above are really talking about. If you always officiate varsity boys basketball, you will likely identify the key things that you need to do to be consistent with the other officials that referee the same level, gender, type of basketball. If you do not quickly become consistent with them, you will not be calling that level for long.

In some areas, there is a noticeable difference in how the game is called --- by the various level (Varsity vs JV vs Youth), by the gender (boys vs girls), etc.

Any official will struggle when you take him out of the area where he works most of his games if the expectations are different.

For those of us that go to college camps, we often see this. There is a certain expectation teams, players, and coaches have for summer ball. They are used to getting a certain quality of official. When college guys come in, there is often a disconnect. The coaches don't realize they are getting the best officials in the area working their games; to them, we are actually inconsistent to how most of their summer games are called.

"When in Rome" can vary locally between the two genders and the various levels even in one area.

Not to take away from the seriousness of this conversation, but I doubled over laughing when I read this.

Excellent (and funny) point.

Yawn. Forum trolling is so 1998.

Where I work, we do both. Girls season in the fall, Boys in the winter.

I work with a few officials who do a steady diet of both girls and guys ball. Exhibition. Rep. HS. Playoffs. College.

Newer officials here start out doing the ladies ball for a couple of reasons
1. It comes first in the school calendar year.

2. There tends to be less bullshit in the girls ball. The way our boys coaches behave, even towards our more seasoned officials might lead many to hang up the whistle.

Not everyone can make the adjustment. It is something I struggle with- especially going back and forth. Just when you think you are done with the girls game you get a girls rep game. The next day, you could have a men's college game.

Good officials adapt. It's what we do. The biggest adjustment for me when I prepare for a ladies game is remembering I might not need to toss the ball as high.

If a coach has a problem with an official I'm working with it better be because the kicked a call and not because they have a uterus. If it is the former, then fine as long as they don't cross the line. If it is the latter I hope they have a monitor in their dressing room because they aren't sticking around to watch it.

*Applause*

I work with a young (24) female official on my crew (3 person) with this being her 1st full season on varsity and I must say she did a tremendous job. Obviously there were some learning moments, but all officials have those, usually (hopefully) every game if they are striving to always get better. Overall, our strongest games were with her working a BV.

Every time we entered the gym during pre-game heads would turn as fans and players noticed a female ref coming on the court. Many of the girl players would come up to her thanking her for doing the game prior to starting saying, "we're so happy you are reffing our game, we've played for 7 years and never had a female ref!" Fans would give her high fives after the game (BV) as we came back out of the locker room saying, "You rocked it out there!" She's also gotten positive feedback from both coaches and ADs.

She's very good about switching up her game calling when it comes to GV or BV. This could be attributed to many things and as interesting as it may seem, most of her learning and growth in officiating came from working intramurals during college and I feel that really helped her understand contact, advantage/disadvantage, and reffing based on quickness, rhythm, balance, speed.

We only have 5 women in our entire association and she's the only one working both GV and BV. We'll see where she goes but she works harder than many throughout the area and I feel she'll move up if she wants it.