How is it done in your state?

[Nevadaref]

Due to a point raised in another thread, I thought it would be interesting to learn how different places administer their athletics. Maybe we can get some good ideas from each other. For better or for worse, here is how it is done in Nevada.

The state is chopped up geographically into three regions for officiating purposes. (There are also three regionals for member schools, but they are not the same as the way the officials are grouped.) There is one association in each of those regions. They are called the Southern Nevada Officials Association (SNOA), the Northeastern Nevada Officials Association (NENOA), and the Northern Nevada Officials Association (NNOA). The SNOA serves Las Vegas and its surrounding area, the NENOA works the games in Elko and the other small towns in that corner of the state, and the NNOA handles the Reno/Sparks area, Lake Tahoe, and some other smaller towns around here.
Now these associations have a contract with the governing body for high school athletics in the state, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, to provide officials for all games which take place in Nevada involving NIAA member schools. The NIAA has an Executive Director and a staff, who make the schedules (school A v. school B, not assigning the officials to the games), secure the venues for regional and state championship contests, and handle the administration of the athletes (eligibility and suspensions). There is also something called a board of control, which meets and decides things like whether or not we will have a mercy rule and which schools are in which divisions. The NIAA would be considered our state office. Continue reading below to see how the state office influences our testing and assigning.

Each association is made up of different chapters--one for each sport. Each chapter has its own president, etc, and has a way that its assigning is done.

However, the NIAA Executive Director appoints a commissioner who is charged with overseeing the coaches, players, and officials in each sport. The way I understand it, it is ultimately his decision on how officials are tested and assigned. For a while the SNOA has had only one commissioner for all sports, the NENOA has had two (one guy handled baseball and softball and another did the rest), and the NNOA has had six commissioners for eight different sports. Last year the main NNOA commissioner resigned and the NIAA Ex.D. decided to follow the SNOA lead and have one guy for all sports. So this year we have only one commissioner.
Now in the past the commissioner of each sport had the responsibility to select the officials for postseason play. Some commissioners did this themselves and assigned officials to particular games, some chose to delegate this task to the leaders of each chapter. (The new man seems to be following the delegation path. I personally think no commissioner should have anything to do with either the selection or assigning of postseason officials because most commissioners aren't even officials, they are former coaches or administrators. I would rather that it be left up to the individual chapters, and they can work out how it is done amongst themselves.)
Now the regular season is pretty straight forward since each Association is assigned what schools it covers based upon geographic location. Therefore, southern guys and northern guys never work together in the regular season.
The playoffs are a two-tiered system in this state. This consists of the regionals (also called zone) and state. As I said earlier there are three regionals for the bigger schools 4A (the smaller schools do it a bit differently, but still geographically): Northern, Sunrise and Sunset. There used to be only two (Northern and Southern), but Las Vegas is growing so fast that the Southern regional was split into the Sunrise and Sunset. Right now all three regionals have about 15 schools.
The northern region playoffs are almost always in the Reno area and are officiated by the NNOA, with a few NENOA officials sometimes invited to come out, but mostly they handle one of the smaller classifications and those games are played out near Elko. The Sunrise and Sunset regionals are played in Vegas and worked by the SNOA. The winners and a couple of 2nd and even 3rd place finishers in the regionals qualify for the state tournament. The number of teams invited depends on the sport.
For example, football, soccer, and baseball take 4 teams to state, but basketball takes 8 (4 in some of the smaller classifications). So in soccer or football you have to win your regional to go to state, unless it is your regionals turn to send its 2nd place team and this simply rotates. In basketball, two regionals would send their top 3 teams with the other getting only 2 teams in; again done on a rotating basis.
The officiating at state games is done by mixed crews. Since this is a basketball board, I'll say that in basketball the number of slots alloted is based on the number of teams from your association that are in the tourney. For example, if Vegas has six teams and Reno two, then Vegas will get 75% of the officiating slots on the games. So a crew might be SNOA, SNOA, NNOA. There will be a token NENOA official tossed in on some games. In the years that the Northern regional sends 3 teams and Vegas 5, the number of officials will reflect this balance.
The selection of who fills these slots is done by the commissioner of each Association. I know that they do not even talk to each other when assigning their slots. They simply put a guy here and gal there about a week before the state tourney and then a couple days before the game you find out who you are working with from the other associations. This has created personal conflicts in the past and there have been problems between say a NNOA official and a SNOA official during games involving teams from both regions. Accusations of favoritism in the foul calling is sometimes quite fierce.
The state tourney site has moved back and forth from Vegas to Reno about every 4 years.



[Edited by Nevadaref on Oct 13th, 2003 at 04:00 AM]

[JRutledge]

The Illinois High School Association is an association of schools that adhere to the same rules all over the state. From an officiating standpoint, all the IHSA does for us is license us so that we can do High School games from one part of the state to another. The IHSA is the only body that promotes officials (using their ranking system) and hands out playoffs. Our local Official's Associations, play no part in the actual assignments given by the state. There is and evaluation process that can include the local official's associations, but it is very minor in the bigger picture.

I belong to an Association called the Athletic Official's Association (not the only one I am a member of btw). We have what we call divisions. We have a football division, basketball, baseball and softball division. Each division in this particular association you have to pay dues to for membership. I personally belong to the Basketball and Baseball Divisions of this association. These divisions do not give out games at all. They might have assignors who are members, but the mission of this association is to train and make officials better who happen to be members. For basketball, I belong to 3 other associations currently. Two of the associations have a basketball division, one association is only a basketball group. These associations do not test us or have much to do with what we do as a whole. It is not unusual for me to work conferences over the area and not work at all with folks that belong to any one association. So following one doctrine or one philosophy is not likely unless it comes from the IHSA or IHSA Clinicians.

Our camps are run by the IHSA and can only be sactioned if IHSA Clinicians are present and participating. IHSA Clincians are fellow officials that have been trained to run camps and follow a standard that is throughout the state. An Official's Association might have more than one Clinician in their association and might run a camp that has no affiliation to any association. Now many associations might have a camp sometime during the summer or off-season, but they all do not have camps. For licensing purposes, we have to attend a IHSA camp every 3 calender years. What they call a 4 hour camp can serve this purpose, but it only has a classroom portion to it. If you want to do playoffs, you are required to have a 6 hour camp within those 3 years, which has classroom and floor time appart of that camp. Six hour camps are much more geared toward 3 Person mechanics, which all state playoff games are officiated under.

Now the IHSA does have an individidual that oversees the "Official's Department," which a few years ago was Mary Struckoff, now Editor over the NF Basketball Rulebook. Now that person is Dave Gannaway, who happens to be on the NF Football Committee. Gannaway is the person that implements all the policies that the IHSA wants all officials to adhere to during the licensing, promotion and playoff processes. So this is one reason IHSA Officials do not refer to the IHSA as their association. For one it is not unique to an official to be a member of the IHSA, but it might be unique that I am a AOA or COA member. This is why many refer to the IHSA from the Chicagoland area as "The State." Because when the "State" says something, we have to adhere to it. And the main way we know what the "State" wants us to do, is we have to attend IHSA Rules Meetings to maintain our licenses every year and stay in good standing for the playoffs. These particular meetings are only run be IHSA Rules Interpreters (about 6 individuals) to go across the state and hold about 25-30 meetings. And in these meetings all the new rules, POE and IHSA policies are discussed. All officials have to attend and all schools have to have a representative in attendences as well.

To make a long story short, the IHSA is to the schools and officials, like the NCAA is to colleges all over the country. They are the body that regulates everyone and sets standards across the entire state.

As it relates to testing (NF Tests) the IHSA gives and administers those test only. Our local Associations have no role in that at all, whatsoever. All officials have to take the Part 1 every year no matter what to maintain their current license. We take the Part 2 Exam only if we are going for promotion. Last year I reached the highest ranking of "Certified Official," so I will no longer have to take the Part 2 for the rest of my career. As long as I pay my dues or do not go on probation or get suspended, I will maintain my "Certified" status as an official. Only Certified Officials are the ones that go "downstate" or do the State Finals in their respective sports. Certified Officials also get higher consideration for playoff assignments. It is not impossible for lower ranked officials to get playoffs, but less likely and sometimes down right unsual.

Peace

[Rick Vietti]

Rut - I also lived in Illinois for 9 years before moving to Nevada. During that time I put officiating on hiatus because of many reasons (kids, job) but also that it seemed tough to work in Illinois. I originally moved from California which has a similar system to Nevada's.

I lived in a small town (Pontiac) and from talking to guys around there, you had to go out and hustle games for yourself. By hustling, I mean the schools did not go to any specific assigner but officials solicited their own games/contracts.

Is the only purpose of your joining these multiple associations for training and networking purposes?

If you get training material from Bloomington and assignments from assigners for conferences, then what is done with the dues you pay your association?

Otherwise I see no benefit to join an association. It seems in the Illinois system it is better to know as many assigners as possible or in the down state area as many AD's as possible.

[Tim Roden]

Texas
UIL governs the schools. They handle all the pety rules that we don't have in the book like who is elegible to play and so forth. They divide the state in to four regions and within each reagin there is four districts. Each district acts like a conference would with round robin play for a district title. Top two teams in each distrct in basketball make it to the playoffs. I like the way track does it. Top two in each event at the distrct meet make it to regionals. Top two there make it to state. No prelims have to be run at the state or regional meet. But your have to be good to move on.

TASO(Texas assosciation of Sports officials) governs officiating. Every HS official must be a member. TASO governs the officiating of the major sports so all officials are members. They divide into regions and then chapters. You may only belong to one chapter. I know some offials in my chapter that also belong to an association in Louisiana but not another one in Texas. Some chapters like Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston have one chapter for the region. Others like mine in East Texas has 7 chapters in the region. The schools contract with one chapter to hire officals. All games are assigned through the chapters. This can be fun as the local 4A distrct would have one school hiring from the Mt Pleasant chapter while the rest of the schools hire from my chapter in Longview. There is a 3A district that all but one hires from Longview and the one hires from Tyler. The gerimandering of where we travel is attrocious since this one school that we don't work is just 10 miles from my house. I have traveled up to 100 miles one way to call a game in another chapters back yard.

If you have read the book "Friday night lights", you see a little bit that goes into deciding who does the playoff. The schools get together and decide which chapter is going to call the games and the chapter decides which officials go. After deciding, they send the list of officials to the schools and the schools have a chance to accept or reject the officials. I remember after one football playoff game, some kids came to me and said how bad the officiating was. I just shook my head and told the kids that it was your coaches who decided who was going to call your game.
For the state games. The TASO state board travels around to the various chapters and watches officials who each chapter would consider in the top 15% of its chapter. And from there they decide who is going to call at the state playoffs.

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by Rick Vietti
Rut - I also lived in Illinois for 9 years before moving to Nevada. During that time I put officiating on hiatus because of many reasons (kids, job) but also that it seemed tough to work in Illinois. I originally moved from California which has a similar system to Nevada's.

I lived in a small town (Pontiac) and from talking to guys around there, you had to go out and hustle games for yourself. By hustling, I mean the schools did not go to any specific assigner but officials solicited their own games/contracts.

It might be difficult if you come from a place that belong to an association that did everything for you. But for those that have officiate our entire career, no major problems here. With any system there are +s and -s.

Originally posted by Rick Vietti

Is the only purpose of your joining these multiple associations for training and networking purposes?

For the most part, yes. There are a couple of associations that can get you games, but that is not that common.

Originally posted by Rick Vietti

If you get training material from Bloomington and assignments from assigners for conferences, then what is done with the dues you pay your association?

I do not think I said that all the training material came from Bloomington or the State office. Most of what we get in training, is directly from the NF itself. And I think most would agree that officiating is much more than what you get from the NF in any sport. So being a member of an association helps train you, discuss situations and learn what is expected from state through officials that have accomplished playoffs, college and sometimes pro ball. Many associations go over the test. All associations that I know have at least one IHSA Clinician in their association and they might run the meetings with mechanics and game management training. Many associations do run their own Certified Clinics during the year as well.

Originally posted by Rick Vietti

Otherwise I see no benefit to join an association. It seems in the Illinois system it is better to know as many assigners as possible or in the down state area as many AD's as possible.

Where do you think assignors come to get officials to work for them? Well it is not the local watering hole (even though that would not be a bad place to look ). I do not know many basketball associations that meet during the season, so this is the time when assignors come to introduce themselves to get newer and younger officials to work all the lower level games and to make contacts with the varsity level officials. And when officials or assignors need replacements for games, the associations have a database of officials qualified to fill the games. So the assignors might call a particular association for a fill in or for recommendations of who might help them out. The more experienced officials make presentations on a topic, which I have done more than once in the assocications I belong to and we discuss many aspects of what we do as officials. In many times we get D1 officials and assignors to attend meetings or banquets to enlighten the members on what it takes to go to that level. There are so many reasons I could not even list them all. But not belonging to one or attending the meetings on a regular basis, usually can hurt you more than it helps.

Peace

[stan-MI]

In Michigan, the MHSAA registers officials and makes tournament assignments for the districts, regionals and states. Only registered officials can work at MHSAA member high schools. Coaches rate game officials, and the rating are compiled by the MHSAA to assist in making tournament assignments. The MHSAA also conducts annual rules meetings, where attendance is mandatory for officials who want tournament assignments.

On the local level, most leagues hire an individual assignor to supervise and assign officials. Some assignors require that officials belong to a particular association. Others do not.

Associations are local and provide varying degrees of training. In the near future, the MHSAA is going to require, as a condition of tournament assignments, that officials belong to associations and regularly attend meetings.

[Rick Vietti]

Rut - Illinois is defintely different. Now in the Nevada system (of course we do not have the volume of schools that Illinois has state wide) the associations bill the school districts and we get paid by our chapter. In our system we never have to go chase a check or call a school for payment.

In Illinois are you paid by the individual schools or by the assigner? And does the assigner get paid by the schools or do you ante up for the assignments?

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by Rick Vietti

In Illinois are you paid by the individual schools or by the assigner? And does the assigner get paid by the schools or do you ante up for the assignments?

There is no one size fits all. Each conference has their own rules and each school district does their own thing.

I work for conferences and schools that pay you on the spot.

I work for conferences that have you sign vouchers and pay at the end of a pay period (depends on that school).

I work for conferences where the assignor pays you directly.


There are over 750 school in the state of Illinois, not all do the same things.

Peace

[tomegun]

I have to make one correction for Southern Nevada. In Southern Nevada there is one president for the entire Association. There are board members for each individual sport. During the state tournament there have been accusations of officials leaning towards a school from their region. However, let me tell you that all of the Southern Nevada officials that I know that went to state, myself included, didn't care who won or lost. Upset will happen and we just didn't have that kind of personal bond with the coaches. I can only say this about the last 2 years. What happened before that shouldn't really matter. There are some good officials with good intentions in Northern Nevada. There has only been one big problem when I went to state and that was something that is flat out wrong. I will not elaborate but to say that we should give everyone a chance to work a game no matter what you think about them.

[Nevadaref]

Originally posted by tomegun
I have to make one correction for Southern Nevada. In Southern Nevada there is one president for the entire Association. There are board members for each individual sport.

Thx, I learn something new every day!

Originally posted by tomegun
During the state tournament there have been accusations of officials leaning towards a school from their region.
However, let me tell you that all of the Southern Nevada officials that I know that went to state, myself included, didn't care who won or lost. Upset will happen and we just didn't have that kind of personal bond with the coaches. I can only say this about the last 2 years. What happened before that shouldn't really matter. There are some good officials with good intentions in Northern Nevada. There has only been one big problem when I went to state and that was something that is flat out wrong. I will not elaborate but to say that we should give everyone a chance to work a game no matter what you think about them.

As you said the problems of the past should be left there and they are unfortunate, but according to those who have been around for many years they certainly happened and were caused by people from both areas.
I was very pleased with the attitudes shown by the officials towards each other at the state tournament last year. And I know that those "good officials with good intentions from Northern Nevada" realize that there are some wonderful officials in Southern Nevada and enjoy working with them.