Papa's Got A Brand New Bag (James Brown, 1965) ...

[Rich]

I assign varsity games only for 24 schools. I can hire whoever I want.

There are a few officials where I will honor a boys-only request. I know these officials, many of them work college for an assigner who will not allow them to work any girls/women hoops. They're good people, they ask in the right way, and they appreciate what they do get from me.

There are a few officials who have asked for boys only because they see the first group getting boys only -- and I told them if they don't work girls, they aren't getting anything. They haven't earned that from me or other assigners here (one crew I remember had about 4 years experience). No skin off my whatever.

I've always worked both. The one year I decided to only work boys games, I got assigned to work the state tournament for girls. At that point I simply started working girls games again. The conversations with assigners here were awkward, too.

How do I feel about the whole "girls officials are worse" thing?

Regarding ratings -- if you put the same people from boys games onto girls games, their ratings would be worse. That's my experience -- my boys ratings are considerably higher than my girls ratings EVERY YEAR. I won't call every little bump a foul and many of those coaches expect that.

Furthermore, I find it much easier to work a boys game. Much easier to get into a rhythm, much easier to make a call/no-call decision on contact, etc.

Finally, as someone who has now assigned for 5 years -- those who think they're great officials aren't always so in the eyes of the schools and coaches. And I've weeded out people who really don't want to be at my smaller schools, too.