Either when you dont have time or you dont enjoy it anymore.

Ive always had fun doing pre highscool rec games, part of it is that the people involved appreciate having people that know what we're doing working the games.

Dont buy the BS that rec games ruins your mechanics, the guys that say that usually have bad mechanics to start with.

At some point, you will say, "i don't care about the money, I'm not putting up with this BS any more. The BS isn't going to stop. When you get there you will know.

(and one other thing i will add, AND PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT...i don't know if you have kids but yesterday mine were born and today they are 22 and 17. I/we will never get the time that has passed back. I'm 51. If I could, i'd do some things differently for sure.) That may be a reason to continue putting up with the BS if you don't have kids yet. Save money for them, spend time now doing it so that when you have them you can take off etc. )

When someone first starts officiating, they have to get court time. You aren't going to have much control over the level of play or the quality of your partners at this early stage in the game. And, it really doesn't matter. You just need to see plays.

At some point, the good ones start to rise above that. As you rise, you get better games, better partners, better quality ball. As you move up, you will realize at a certain point that working wreck ball no longer helps you improve as an official. In fact, you will get to a point where you feel that it makes you worse (Having your partner make incorrect calls right in front of you, screw up mechanics, miss blatant calls so that you start peering into their coverage area).

When these negative aspects of wreck ball outweigh the benefit of floor time, it is time to quit.

My last wreck game I tossed a player and swore I wasn't returning. Even though I was working with a friend. I think kid wreck can be fun and rewarding. Anything else I am slowing down with. It is not worth the gravitation. I'd take a week off and see if you really miss it. The T for clapping was perfect. And if you stick to it I would continue to call unsporting behavior and penalize it. When they are gone the game goes so much better.

When I'm tired of it and it's no fun anymore, I'll stop doing Rec Games. Hasn't happened yet. I don't do that many annually - guess I'm in the minority here though just because I do some.

I have one Rec league, that I pretty much started my officiating avocation in 11 yrs ago, that I don't do too much anymore. Didn't like the gyms, some of the parents and coaches were out of control (IMO), they offered no trng, I was the only state certified official, administrators didn't mail checks in a timely manner, and I just became frustrated.

I have another Rec league that I really enjoy. They train officials, have good league officials, several trained officials, pay pretty well, etc.

Thankfully, I'm at that stage where I don't need the $ and can pick and choose what leagues and games I want to work.

When did I know when to retire from wreck league?

After the first game.

I hate it.

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I stopped after I started hating officiating about 2/3rds the way through a season (too many games). I cut out the rec leagues and have enjoyed it to the last game every year since.

I'll amend this a little and say I stopped when I consistently started getting JV games. Around me, at least for public schools, JV is pretty much all 10th graders, and hence a few years removed from the traditional rec age and skill level. My first year of high school was mainly ninth grade and middle school games, so I did rec on the side for court time. In my second year I started getting more consistent JV with a few varsity games sprinkled in, so in my view I had "leveled up" so to speak

I also did intramurals in college for three years, which is basically the same thing, before moving on to high school ball.

I work with a couple of youth leagues in my area (Jr High aged girls travel and a Jr High/HS boys league) ...I stay with them because they take the aspect of sportsmanship highly and don't tolerate parents officiating from the stands or getting ignorant with the officials. I work them for exercise, my love of the game and extra money. If/when the refs have to TCOB, they back us up...I've tossed my fair share over the years, including a warning to an entire section of parents when I got stuck officiating game by myself cause a pair of guys no showed and my P and I had to split up on two courts.

I swore off Men's Wreck league the night a boxing match broke out...I had been calling games about 3 years at that point (15 years ago). I walked off the floor and swore I'd never , ever work men's league again. Not worth the $20 (at that time) and the amount of whining, complaining and crying was more than what I would have put up with my own kids at home.

Everyone has their own gauges as to what they do and don't enjoy and will and won't tolerate. Having an assignor that will support you is critical. I work a league where I probably take the least amount of crap from players of any of the officials. Most of that has to do with the fact that most of these officials aren't high school certified, and those that are are newer officials, so most of those guys don't have the stones to whack someone unless it gets REALLY, REALLY bad.

That being said, I took a few years off from wreck league a few years back, mainly because I didn't have time for it. But as our school district consolidated some schools, resulting in a lighter high school schedule, I went back to doing wreck league again 2 years ago. The money is decent($35 a game, 3 games per night), and I just don't put up with the idiots. I feel I'm pretty reasonable in communicating with players, but when they just switch to a-hole mode, I whack 'em and move on.

Decide what you want to put up with, see if it aligns with your assignor, and if it doesn't, get out.