Three Cheers for One of Our Own!
Jeff Rutledge aka at Rut has been named Official of the Year by the Joilet (Ill.) Basketball Officials Association.
Congratulations Jeff!! MTD, Sr. |
congrats!
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Congratulations ...
The Forum has also named him "Video King".
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Congrats, Rut. :)
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Great Job
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Hip,hip, huzzah!
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Do not give a damn!! :D
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Congrats Rut! :cool:
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I figured Mark was up to something when he asked me what association gave me this honor.
It was a total shock and did not realize that was going to happen. Well, I might as well say something else that was shocked about. I have been assigned to work my 3rd IHSA State Final in 3A-4A Boys (6 overall) the weekend of March 15 and 16. Looking forward to this for sure. Been a great week so far. Just trying to get through the morning with all the calls and text. Peace |
Like continuous motion, good basket and ONE on top of it! Congrats JRut!
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Congratulations!
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk |
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Not Too Shabby ...
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Maybe that's why, in an "and one" situation, he will often say, "First down" instead of, "One shot". |
awesome
Congratulations JRutledge! This is awesome, looking fwd to your continued commentary and challenging posts on the forum---maybe there'll be some case plays from your state games to share with us.
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BTW, the 6 total is in all my sports. I am only the 10th I believe in state history to work the State Finals in Boys Basketball, Football, and Baseball in the history of the IHSA. I am the 4th person in the Chicagoland area to do that as well. One of the guys that did this worked the Super Bowl as a Replay guy (worked in the Big Ten for years) and another guy is in the National Federation Hall of Fame (this past year was honored). Three of the people to do this belonged to the same organization at one time, the oldest Official's Association in the country, the Athletic Officials Association. I am just honored to have done something not many have one. And I am the only African-American to do all those things too. Just trying to follow in the footsteps of my mom, who just got honored herself for an award in her country along with many other awards named after her or she has been honored recently. I have big shoes to fill. Peace |
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I would only mention that because it is rare and got a lot of help and have been blessed to that it took place. I would rather say that I was fortunate to have a few people help me along that way. I do not take that for granted at all. Peace |
Chip Off The Old Block ...
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When I started officiating basketball thirty-eight years ago we had only a half dozen African-American officials (one who was our president) and no female officials on my local board. At our next local meeting we will have our first female president (who also happens to be African-American) and our first female interpreter (who also happens to be African-American). My daughter, who is now 34 years old, played a lot of high level basketball over many years and never once had a female official working any of her games. Variety is the spice of life. https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.V...=0&w=300&h=300 |
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Nice work! |
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Peace |
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If you are potentially capped at 3 finals appearances, does the desire to go out and work diminish knowing that you cannot work the pinnacle game of the season? |
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Peace |
Many of the people working downstate are fat, old, and out of shape. They should have worked downstate 5-7 years before they actually make it there, when they actually were good officials. By the time they are done with their 3rd trip, they need to be put out to pasture anyway. JRut is one of the few that doesn't fall into this category.
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Also, because most of the best teams, especially in the two larger divisions are from Chicago or the Chicago suburbs, the downstate games, are not necessarily the pinnacle of the season. Often, the two best teams will have faced off earlier in the playoffs. The IHSA likes to have geographically diverse final four, rather than the 4 best teams in each division.
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Three Sports ...
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Many go out of their way to NOT work the state tournament. The pay is much lower than regular season games, travel distances are greater, more time is involved, and the prestige is non-existent for them. I have known many that were asked out of necessity and they turned them down/back.
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I think all of us put up with some really bad basketball at times during the season. You hope for post season rewards to make the season worth it. |
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I understand, but you earn your opportunity by your performance during the season. I wouldn't want to earn an opportunity because other guys are capped. I know there are only so many slots available at the end of the season, but I would hope that any selection committee, or assignor, or whatever would be smart enough to spread out post season selections to worthy officials. Not just give it to guys because other guys are capped. Even without caps, you don't have to give it to the same guys every year. There are other qualified officials that deserve opportunities. I just don't believe in a cap. |
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BTW, everyone plays in the Regional level no matter what your record is. The Regional Final winners play in the Sectional. We get assigned either a Sectional Final which means two games (semifinal and final) or the Semifinal which means one game. Getting the Sectional Final means you can advance further. The Super-Sectional is one game at a neutral site, usually at a college campus (e.g. Northern Illinois University) across the state for the most part. The winner of the Super Sectional goes to State and plays two games in either Bloomington (girls) or Peoria (boys). To work the State Tournament, you have to work all those levels. Peace |
The Great Debate ...
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One side argued that if officials worked hard doing both boys and girls games all season long that they deserved to do both genders in the tournament if voted in by both sets of coaches. The other side argued that this new system allowed more officials to work state tournament games. This year we started another new local procedure, allowing officials to indicate if they wanted to work only boys regular season games, or only girls regular season games, or both genders. All these recent changes have led to some officials becoming "girls officials", and others becoming "boys officials". |
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I also believe every state has a small group of officials that think they are gods and are better than everybody else, thus they think they deserve to do both boys and girls tourneys and get every big game in between. Kudos to your area for giving more officials the opportunity. I also do NOT believe in becoming a "girls official" or a "boys official". I think we all agree that there are a lot of bad girls games out there. Boys too. We have such a big ego that you are only going to do boys games? That has always baffled me as we have guys in our area that will only do boys games. They only want to do boys state tourneys and they usually get their way. It's annoying and I just don't understand the ego involved. |
Gender Wars ...
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At the end of last season a few guys won election to our local executive board on a "both genders" platform. Same thing again this year (election's in a few weeks). Depending on the results of the election we may go back to "both genders" for the state tournament next year. I've been out observing our guys and gals in state tournament games almost every night over the past three weeks. All the officials are excellent, but I must say that the officials who were elected and chose to work the boys tournament are a half a tier better than the officials who were selected and chose to work the girls tournament. Not a big difference, hardly noticeable, but there is a slight difference. |
Congrats Rut,
FYI folks the IHSA tournament is available thru the NFHS Network. $9.95 gets you a 30 day pass to watch games from all over our great land. |
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Peace |
Everyone,
I will be working the 4A Final Championship at 7:30 tonight. Thanks for the support. You have any questions let me know. Peace |
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