2019-20 NFHS: Rumors/Desires?

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Yes it does have to do with where you officiate, but not for you personally because with your accomplished resume I doubt that anybody, officiating anywhere, Illinois, Connecticut, Rome, etc., would criticize you for something so minor (I'm still surprised that you were criticized for it in your state final, but there's at least one person in your area who thinks it's a "deal", not a big deal, but a "deal, not minor enough to ignore, but enough of a "deal" to make a constructive comment).

But if you were a young official, especially one who seems to have an aptitude for officiating, is off to a good start, and might have a bright future, here in my little corner of Connecticut, you would eventually bump into someone, one of our interpreters, a mentor, a mechanics training committee member, or a member of our evaluation committee, who would point out the minor issue, during either an official, or an unofficial, evaluation observation. Probably not me, similar to you, I tend to concentrate other things. I would rarely, if at all, point out this minor flaw.

Just so you know, there are people that make issues out of those things here, but if the assignor you work for does not care (many don't) or the clinicians at the camp you attend do not care then it does not matter. All that matters is what the people you work for and if they give you games or do not give you games based off of their narrow position. Most assignors that I have worked with are going to tweak things you do, but they are not going to stop giving you games because something in the book is not "perfect."

For the record, the State Tournament Officials are giving games by people that never give games during the regular season. The State Administrator in that particular sport makes all the postseason assignments. One of his mandates is to use officials that have worked enough games, have certain ratings and have certain levels of experience. I do not think he is holding people back from an assignment just because they do not give a perfect signal. He would be in trouble if that is the only reason you do not work or do not work a certain level in the tournament. And to get to the State Finals takes a lot of steps. You do not just one year go from a Regional to a Super-Sectional for the most part. You have to climb that latter and then you get that shot at the State Finals at some point. Even to work a championship game usually does not come to someone working their first State Final assignment. This was my third State Final assignment and I did not work a title game in my first year and I did not even think I was going to work a title game in my third year because on my second trip I worked the 3A game. Trust me we have a meeting before the tournament starts where we discuss many things that we are expected to do. Mechanics is something heavily talked about but no one discusses hand position of a signal. Even if we give preliminary signals which are "required" by the state and there usually is a little bet we have with the head official about giving the proper sequence for a team control foul, which most of us never do properly. We bet that we give the head official a beer every time we do it wrong. I and another good friend just got him beers anyway because we could never do it "perfect."

I am sure that is not that much different in other places. It might be mentioned, but that is not going to stop a good official from getting certain places. If it does, shame on those people in power that have no perspective. The goal should be to put out the best officials you can at the time that are avaialble to you, not to nitpick the little things they do that do not affect their job performance.

Peace