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

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Don't all of these kids deserve the best officials available at that date and time?

Should mostly white officials be assigned to mostly white games? Should mostly black officials be assigned to mostly black games? Should mostly Catholic officials be assigned to Catholic school games? Should mostly female officials be assigned to girls games?

Officials already make those decisions and I am sure they make those decisions within your area as well as other areas.

In the Chicago area, there are officials that refuse to work games in certain areas. And yes those areas involve a certain demographic or certain cultures they would not see in others.

I lived in a western suburb for over 15 years (after moving from central Illinois). The western suburbs are mostly middle to upper middle class and not very diverse in many areas (some are but work with me). I knew officials in those areas that would never go to Chicago, for example, to work in the city that has a lot of predominately Black and Hispanic areas. I knew officials from the city that did not want to go to a lot of suburbs because they did not like the style of play in those other areas. And many officials simply liked to work where they lived and did not like the travel. All those personal standards had consequences good and bad.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Again, don't all of these kids deserve the best officials available at that date and time, regardless of the gender of the players, or the officials?

Officials have the right to decide what they are going to do unless you are going to pay them enough to make that decision harder. There are only 7 days a week and I am sure between work and family if I am available 4 of those days, I will decide on some level if I am going to work anything. Because the alternative is that they might not be available at all. I guess we have to make some real choices as to what we require. I know officials that simply want to stay rather close to home and there are assignors here that will make that happen because they have enough schools and games to allow that to take place. Many officials never pursue working for certain assignors simply because of the location of their schools.

Peace