1st all female crew
 

When I became board secretary 4 years ago, There were no female officials work in varsity games. My goal was to push our female officials to that level and now I pushed for them to be an all female crew.

I couldn't be more proud of where they are I know the future is very bright for all 3 of them. And I hope to bring in more female officials into the association.

Historic night came as easy as 1-2-3 | Local Sports | times-news.com

Selecting people for crews because of gender, race, height, lack of hair, or any other reason besides the quality of the individual's officiating is wrong.
Unfortunately, you have taken the mistaken path of fulfilling an agenda.
This type of stuff doesn't help officiating and needs to stop.

I have 40 varsity slots to fill EVERY Tuesday and Friday.

Part of what I do involves recruiting officials, identifying talent, and putting a positive spin on officiating wherever I can.

If these officials are varsity qualified, there's NO REASON you can't put them together into a crew.

I hired 3 females to work a boys varsity game this season. They all work varsity boys and girls regular season games. Did I promote the event? Yes, I did. I even went to the game, took pictures, and live tweeted it. They did great -- I have no doubt they would.

+infinity

Nonsense. It shouldn't be done at the *expense* of the officiating, but to totally discount those factors is not in the enlightened self-interest of recruiting and retaining officials, as well as enhancing credibility with participants and addressing systematic inbalances. I reject this false choice that these are mutually exclusive. Do both.

All 3 of these female officials had worked very hard, going to camps, working lower level games and getting experience. They deserve this assignment, it is the 1st time it's happened. We did promote it and we do hope to recruit other female officials into our association because of it.

I believe there was a biased against female officials in the past.

There has most definitely been bias against female officials, and where I live against black officials also.

And I'm not talking about 20-30 years ago, I'm talking about this decade. Those same folks whose jump up the minute they think a minority or female is being given an upper hand are the same folks who have been complicit or sat by silently for years/decades while minorities and females have been sh!t on.

There are matchups in my association where it's imperative to have at least one black official on the crew. Preferably two. Not saying it's right, I'm saying it's reality.

This business is full of politics regardless of whether it suits you.

Some people's brains are incapable of grasping 2 different concepts at the same time.

There are also schools where I work who complain to assignors if they get all black crews.

As for black officials, we have 2. Both work lower level games, but I can tell you from experience, they have a different ( better ) relationship with black players and black coaches.

I send all-black crews into towns where there are few black people.

Good luck complaining to me about that one. I think most people know better.

I'm sure some coaches are, deep-down, bothered with females working boys games. Another complaint I don't expect to hear.

I really am color- and gender-blind when it comes to assigning. I need officials (about 40 a night) and I really only think about whether they can handle a particular contest. I don't always get that right, but I do my best.

Frankly, I'm the exact same way about all characteristics. Short, tall, thin, heavy, doesn't matter to me, as long as people can do the job.

That is shameful, and even more shameful by assignors if those complaints are met with anything more than the disdain they deserve.

As it should be. But folks who think diversity considerations should be ignored are living in a bubble and ignoring history. As I said elsewhere on social media, there are currently state tournament officials in every state whose resumes have benefitted from the failure of females and minorities getting equal opportunities at some point in their careers.

And this is exactly why "reality" does not change and our current state of "biases" perpetuates. IMO, quite sad.