Nights of the Week

[IowaMike]

Hey I get the not working too many nights a week; not saying I work 4 nights a week all season but there are occasional weeks I do. Two nights a week is my preference as well. A lot of those heavy weeks are when I pick up a game on late notice to help someone out. I really don't find Jr high games to be much of an imposition though; they start at 4:30 and the A and B games are usually done by 6. Home in time for dinner. Varsity games are more of a chore; I either have to work a girl/boy double in the smaller conferences and probably drive quite a distance or a single game in the big conferences that don't start until around 7:45 so I get home late. I agree working too much can burn you out; I've been at this for 16 years and stepped away from both basketball and baseball once because I was burned out from working too much.

I also agree there are a lot of ways to learn as a new official. I went and watched veteran officials work games on my own and did a lot of studying. However, some of the tips I got from veteran guys working those lower level games in my first few years were invaluable. I'm glad there were some of them still willing to work those games with a newbie like me.