You're making an assumption not supportable by the statement. Working a game or games doesn't imply ability or that someone else was or was not more qualified. I've worked with several people on some level of game that were not really qualified for that game.

I'm all for making sure deserving but underrepresented demographics get adequate or even extra opportunities, but nothing in your statement relates to that.

Terrapins Fan, good work. I am sorry if I took away from your post and contributed to a distraction. Good luck bringing in more female officials. We need more new faces.

Who was hired based on race, gender, Etc in this story?

Three women were purposely put together on a crew and it was highlighted because it it never happened before. It shouldn't be 2018 and we're just now having places with all female crews. That's the real problem.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Never said anyone was. I was asked what I thought about the idea.

If only college assignors felt the same way...

I am a female ref and started working BV games. I am fully aware of the looks and side remarks from both officials, coaches, and fans. There's nothing I can do about that except continuing to work hard on my mechanics, positioning, and digging in to the rules/case book. And there's only one person I need to worry about: my assignor.

The difference is that numbers are normally not a problem for college assigners. They have lots of candidates that want to be on their staffs, so those characteristics help them narrow it down. High school assigners don't always have that luxury (whether Rich does or not, I don't know).

Someone a couple posts ago said something about shaving. In South Carolina it is written that we are required to have no facial hair except a mustache. And in most high school areas it's an unwritten rule that few if any officials can be good enough to overcome.

Wish there was a like button!

My son is a varsity player. In his HS games and HS age club games he has had relatively few women referees over the past few years. Rare enough that I always notice at the start of the game. But if anything they have been on average better than their contemporaries. Perhaps they still have to be to get games. And I frankly think it is good for the boys to have women referees as well as men. (I'm not suggesting that women should jump the line or be promoted before they are ready, but I do think it makes sense to actively look for women candidates to be in the pool so that those women candidates can earn their way up to a varsity schedule that includes boys' games.)

I'm not a college assigner, although if I was a small college assigner I wouldn't pretend I was a D1 assigner, like so many of them seem to do today.

We're working high school basketball. My #1 concern is that the calls are correct and that officials know how to act in a school environment.

I don't care at all if "he runs funny" or "could stand to lose weight" or whatever else would be written on a college camp evaluation to eliminate people. Does the official get in position and does the official make correct calls at an acceptable level. Does the official know how to talk to coaches and therefore I don't get 5 phone calls a season about an official's demeanor/attitude/etc.

There are crews that have been to a few state tournaments that I simply will not use for a variety of reasons. Some are too demanding (I'll only work boys on Fridays) and some I don't really think are as good as they think they are based on their post-season assignments. I don't have the same agenda as the person who assigns that.

Others I've caught dumping my small school games for closer/"better" assignments. In other words, lack of integrity.

Four years of this has opened my eyes, believe me.

Here it is certainly possible to believe you are better than you are based on post-season assignments. For the coordinator (at least the current/outgoing one), assigning is much more a function of supply, location, and convenience than it is about ability. I know Rich knows this, but since this is an "everybody gets in" state, there are plenty of post-season games with which to inflate officials' egos.

They don't know what they're missing. Some of your small school games are absolutely fantastic and a lot better then some of the urban mismatches I see here in the metro area. Granted, you have your share of putrid duds, too. ;)

It's a function of "all games need to be covered."

In general, I prefer hiring those that want to be there, though, even more than someone with more talent that would rather be elsewhere.

With my season-ending knee injury, I don't need to worry about anything but assigning right now. And I have one night of games left to worry about. :D

John Deere Hats ...
 

I had one of these as a fill in a few weeks ago. Very small, rural school, fifty-five mile one way trip for me. Pickup trucks in the parking lot, and fans wearing John Deere hats, that they dutifully took off during the National Anthem. Varsity home team had only freshmen and sophomores, and a terrible record. But in this small rural town, there's nothing else to do on a Friday night, so everybody goes to the game, small gymnasium but it's packed. There was even a pep band. Lopsided game, but a great atmosphere. I wouldn't mind making this trip (my most distant school) once, or twice, a year.

Yep. I'd much rather have someone on a game that wanted to be there over a "better" official that wanted out. The latter will often just mail it in and it will hurt the game.

Ouch....sorry to hear about that. Hope you're back to full abilities soon.

Give Pennsylvania a try. Some of us have entire regular seasons like this! :cool:

Anyone take a knee??



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk