Anyone else a little nervous.
 

So have only seen one thread on this forum about a startup of youth basketball. In Kansas I believe. There was talk about limiting fans, gloves, masks etc. I am now seeing Fox 40 adds for eletctronic whistles , whistles in masks and other types of whistles that are aimed at keeping us officials and the kids safe. I'm not ready to get in there even if they start up games (which have begun recently in NH I believe ). Feel as if basketball may be one of the worst sports for contact between the kids, coaches and officials. Its all well and good in the NBA and WNBA which are in highly controlled bubbles. But the people that run off season stuff like summer leagues and AAU are only in it for the money. I'm guessing that its business as usual for how they run their touraments. Not worth a lousy $30 per game to take a chance on contracting a virus. I'm acctually surprised that they can get enough willing officials for something like that during this pandemic. Now I'm over 65 with a respritory condition so we've been ultra careful around here. Wondering what the general feeling of the forum is about startup and safety etc. I will say I miss blowing the whistle quite a bit.

I am not understanding the question. Don't do a lot of travel ball anyway so not concerned about what is going on there. I worked a camp last weekend and it was OK. A lot of precautions for sure. I heard from one of my college assignors and they are going full force ahead with all fall sports (at this time). So that means the basketball season will start in late October. But there are scenarios if things change as well. Might be less games or only a conference schedule. I guess we will have to see. An outbreak could change everything and really it is going to be up to how the schools want to move forward as well. We just do not know at the end of July.

Peace

Not Nervous, But Cautious
 

I officiate three sports in two counties. In my county, there has been a slight uptick in positive tests since restrictions were relaxed; the numbers in the next county are worse. I'm over 70, and the risks are too great, despite the various precautions, so I am not working summer basketball or baseball. I have a full soccer schedule for the fall, but we'll see how things stand next month.

I'm retired and don't need the income, and I get aerobic exercise to stay in shape by riding my bike.

Out-Of-The-Box ...
 

From the NFHS:

Bicycle Race (Queen, 1978) …
 

At my age (66), and with three coronary stents, I'm not yet fully comfortable going my gym, even though they've been open for a few weeks, so I ride my bicycle every day for aerobic exercise.

[http://images.45cat.com/queen-bicycle-race-1978-18.jpg

Magic Bus (The Who, 1968) …
 

Connecticut is considering an opposite approach for sports, actually staying away from conference games and some of the long crowded bus rides that are needed for such and moving toward interscholastic games between adjacent and nearby towns to keep the student athletes from being crammed into crowded buses for long rides.

Connecticut is a little state but has large size urban schools, medium size suburban schools, and small size rural schools (with John Deere tractors in the parking lots) scattered all over the state. Conferences are mostly based on school size, not necessarily on distance, and schools within one conference are often scattered long distances across the state.

For example, a small rural school may have to travel by bus through many non-conference suburban and urban towns to get to their conference game against another small rural school.

https://www.thewho.com/wp-content/up...-Magic-Bus.jpg

Billy - I had that Queen album...and I distinctly remember a different image:D
(I believe it was poster inside the album sleeve)

Rated G ...
 

The Forum is Rated G: General audiences – All ages admitted.

I didn't want to take the chance of being suspended, expelled, or worse.

https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.b...=0&w=309&h=186

Would definitely have gotten you unesteemed!

It's At The Top Of My Resume ...
 

That would be a gigantic disaster for me. It's the first thing I mention when I introduce myself to hot single Moms who attend my games. After they hear that I'm an "Esteemed Forum Member" women are driven right out of their minds and they can't keep their hands off of me. It's true. It's true.

https://youtu.be/jtwh3nQP5Uo

Intramurals ...
 

A very prominent pediatrician here in Connecticut is proposing that there be no interscholastic sports here in the state, replacing all interscholastic sports with intramural scholastic sports.

What good is that do? I mean, your keeping the kids "at home" by having them play at their own school, sure (i.e bubble)... but the issue of contact between kids, in say football (which isn't going to be an intramural sport, unless its flag) and basketball is simply not possible...unless you defend like I used to in basketball! :p

Leave The Driving To Us ...
 

Yeah, it's the "bubble" philosophy, makes contact tracing easier.

There are also a few advocates of families doing all the driving, thus avoiding buses, for interscholastic sports.

Many parents and most teachers here in Connecticut seem to want to start the school year with either on-line learning, or a hybrid model (both in school and online), few want to start the school year in school.

Our governor and school superintendents are going to have to make some tough decisions in a few weeks and I just don't see fall interscholastic sports happening here in Connecticut.

Keep in mind that Connecticut, while starting out the "plague" in terrible shape, is in much better shape now than most of the rest of the country. Positive cases keep going down, deaths keep going down, hospitalizations keep going down, testing keeps going up, positivity rate is now well under 1%.

And yet, we're not sure if schools (and interscholastic sports), or bars, will open in September.

https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.V...=0&w=246&h=176

Things were horrible here for a few weeks, obituary pages in the newspapers were overflowing with names, everybody knew somebody who died from the virus, yet we couldn't go to their wakes or funerals because churches and funeral homes were closed.

We've learned our lesson, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

NFHS Update ...
 

Update from the NFHS:

In those states that have pushed back the starting date, some of the delays are a few weeks, although several states are not restarting athletics programs until December or January due to concerns about the current level of positive COVID-19 cases.

Among the states delaying until late 2020 or early 2021, California will be compressing three seasons into two, while Nevada will retain its three-season format but will conduct all sports in a January-May timeframe. Washington will divide its sports offerings into four seasons throughout the year, which will push higher-risk sports to the spring.

States that have delayed the start of sports stretch from the Southeast to the Far West. However, in the ever-changing world of COVID-19, more states may ultimately delay school sports.

In most cases where students are back in school, there has been a phased-in approach, beginning with lower-risk sports such as cross country, golf and tennis. Longer delays are more likely with higher-risk sports such as football, and in the case of five states (California, New Mexico, Nevada, Washington and Virginia) and the District of Columbia, football will not be played until the winter or spring seasons in 2021.

Illinois just moved Football to the Spring, starting on February 15 (assuming that means when team activities start, not necessarily games). Basketball was moved back as well until November 15, which usually started late October or early November.

Many Division 3 in my area completely went to a start in January.

This will be a very different year for sure.

Peace

We're Definitely Not Over The Rainbow ...
 

Haven't heard anything on high school sports so far for Colorado

Our prominent Juco leagues moved the start of basketball games to around January 21st.

California High School BB moved to March - June this season

They moved the football season to January. So not surprised at all by much of this. But we have dumb people in my part of the country complaining as if someone is doing something to them, while schools cannot decide if they will be able to open in their building. We have dumb people in two of the states I work acting like someone is undermining them not to play as scheduled.

Peace

Coin Toss ...
 

NCAA COVID-19-Related Rule Changes For 2020

The NCAA also announced a few temporary pandemic-related rule changes for football aimed to “help mitigate risk of contamination and enhance a safer return to play for all participants without affecting competitive equity.”

First, the sideline area where football teams are expected to stand has been extended to the 15-yard lines. Ordinarily, teams must stand within the two 25-yard lines.

Another change involves the coin toss. For the 2020-21 season, the coin toss will involve only four people: two officials and one captain from each team. Under ordinary circumstances, the NCAA allowed up to four captains per side, as well as media members or ceremonial captains to be involved in the coin toss.

Is this just spitting on a fire? Aren't there bigger fish to fry?

Or, does every little bit help, no matter how little?

These changes don't seem to suggest that is all that will be done. There could be several administrative stuff that doesn't require a rule change in order to implement.

Pay no attention to that pesky line of scrimmage, or the mass of bodies at the end of each play on top of the ball carrier...it's the heavy breathing during the coin toss that we are concerned about! What a joke...

One thing I haven’t noticed on this thread so far is how the re-arrangement and/or compression of traditional sports season schedules may decrease the amount of available officials (as if there wasn’t a shortage in many places already). On top of those who may choose to sit it out until they’ve eventually been vaccinated, you’ve also got those officials who work multiple sports. For example, some dudes who work both football and baseball will have to make choices they’ve never had to make before.

Same will happen to the pool of basketball officials in some cases. Reverting to two-person will be the obvious solution in many instances and I’m really concerned about a nationwide step backwards in this scenario. Once bankrupt athletic budgets drink the two-person cool-aid, it might take 10-20 years in some places to get back to three-person.


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I've been in discussions along those lines both with my local assignor and some of my RefTown customers.

The points you raise are certainly legit. There are several possibilities with addressing this.

For smaller states or cities on the borders with other states, it may be that those states may run the same sports at different times, unlike the normal seasons. In those areas, you may see a lot of officials cross over to help and/or make some extra money.

Similarly, one that I talked to floated the idea of a bunch of people getting together and renting a AirBnB for a few weeks (and they're cheap right now) and working as mercenaries in other states where the games get played at different times. I haven't done the math, but I suppose it might be viable.

The schools could choose to play the games on days outside of what is normally done....football on Friday, baseball on Thursday, for example, allowing the official to be open for both sports. They'll be busy, but it could help.

We have already spread basketball out over all six playing days available to address the shortage of officials and days with too many games. Losing officials to other sports and not having days available to play games would be very difficult.

There could easily be a reduction in total games for teams, but that is yet to be determined.

On the other end our main assignor said he expects a large influx of officials due to the amount of people in the gig economy that have lost work and hours.

Not really, at least for HS sports. ~70% of the games for HS basketball are on Tue/Fri. There almost never any on Sunday. The other 30% are spread across Mon/Wed/Thur/Sat. This is based on a sampling of not only my local organization but a few other randomly chosen organizations that use RefTown. We could easily absorb more games on the off days....or could give up multi-sport officials on those off days if the other sports were on them.

That would help and may very well be the direction it goes.
I would normally expect that too, but this is different. Again, using actual data from more than one organization around the country, the number of info requests or registrations that are normally seen through the spring and into the summer for basketball organizations are a fraction of what they normally are. Perhaps it is merely delayed and once things settle down, it will pick back up, but, as it stands now, fewer people are signing up than normal.

My juco supervisor has already told me that his schools will not start before January 1st and will be limited to a 22 game regular season.

Except for the one Division 1 conference I may or may not still be a part of, all my other basketball conferences have already stated there will be no sports prior to January 1st. My state is starting HS basketball December 28th.



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The NJCAA has mandated that all Juco winter sports will not start until at least Jan. 1. Your supervisor and the schools in his conference can start anytime after Jan. 1, but cannot start before that date, regardless of what they want/local conditions.

Even if this is the case it may very well be negated by the number of (mostly) older officials who decide to hang it up.

Colorado has already spread games evenly out over the six days available (Sunday no games played) We identify pre season every day that has more then 50 varsity games scheduled and reach out to the schools to adjust.

Bubble Guppies ...
 

Here's the latest idea being bounced around here in Connecticut.

Have school sports teams, coaching, practices, etc., just no interscholastic games, only intrasquad games (not intramurals (there will be tryouts, certified coaches, school uniforms, officials, etc.) and not to be called scrimmages (because these would have all the attributes of interscholastic games, scoreboards, uniforms, officials, fans, cheerleaders, band, etc., minus other school opponents).

Student athletes would get almost all the educational advantages of participating on a school team, teamwork, character building, physical exercise, etc., with the health advantages of being in a school "bubble" (contact tracing, etc.) and not having the health issues associated with crowded bus rides to physically interact with student athletes from another town or school.

Proponents say that this is better than having nothing.

From the Hartford Courant:

Dr. Sten Vermund, a pediatrician, epidemiologist and the dean of the Yale School of Public Health, told The Courant last week, “The whole concept of hygiene is kind of irrelevant on the sports field. At the end of the day, physical distancing is not possible.”

Dr. Ezekial Emanuel, part of the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group, said Thursday, “I think contact sports are not a good idea. You can’t have a bubble in high school (sports). You have transportation; you have a lot of things that are going to complicate having a football season. I think for one year, we’re probably going to have to take a miss on it.”

Push most everything off the athletic docket for calendar year 2020.

Or just allow athletic operations to proceed as they normally would — without games.

I know I just pulled the chain on a light bulb that many of you will want to break over my head, but hear me out.

Conversation supporting the need for the resumption of high school sports in the fall has centered largely on the well-being of student-athletes and all that is lost in the absence of organized athletics — structure, discipline, camaraderie, confidence and on and on with what’s obvious.

There it was again in the CIAC’s introduction to its plan, those sentiments buttressed by the contention that “in-person instruction, education-based interscholastic athletics, and other cocurricular activities … are critical to the cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and mental health of our students.”

No doubt. No question. No argument here. Sports, for many, are the backbone of an adolescent foundation and educational experience and, yes, thousands of kids have already been robbed of something irreplaceable.

So set sports off and running, to an extent. We need the programs, the coaches, the teammates, the teaching, the learning, the coming together, the self-discovery, the experience. We just don’t need the actual games right now.

Practice, gather, learn, teach, plan — and devote would-be game days to intrasquad scrimmages or even group community service initiatives voted on by team members. Make what you can of a situation still worth embracing. We want our students, first and foremost, to receive a diversified education and rewarding experience, and that can be accomplished without the few hours of actual competition, without the thrill of victory or sting of defeat, without finding out which teams fit into inevitably bizarre playoff scenarios that haven’t even yet been developed.

High School Sports ...
 

From the NFHS:

... the overarching reason that high schools and state associations are working with government, education and health leaders to offer these programs is that many students desperately need these activities. The experience of playing on a high school team may be one of the only positive aspects of their lives, and the high school coach or director of a speech or music group may be the only positive role model they have.

In some cases, the opportunity to play sports is the chief motivator to attend classes, graduate, obtain a job and begin a life on their own. Regardless of whether the structure is the same as in the past, or if the same number of games are played or even if state championships occur, the continuance of these programs is crucial. And, in recent meetings with leaders of state associations, finances or concerns about state championships are not the primary topic.

In all cases, minimizing risks to students, coaches, officials and others is the No. 1 consideration in conducting high school sports. However, with students now disengaged from activities for five months, the physical health concerns of the virus must be weighed against the psychological health concerns of being separated from school and activities.

A state-by-state review of plans for conducting sports and activities substantiates the herculean efforts by state associations to offer all sports at some point during the 2020-21 school year.

The latest NFHS 2020-21 Sports Seasons Modifications map indicates that 31 state associations have altered their sports offerings to some degree for the coming year. Those modifications range from states that are delaying fall sports by a few weeks, to 10 states that will not be playing football until the winter or spring seasons, and five state associations (California, District of Columbia), Maryland, Nevada, Virginia) that will not have any sports until at least December.

Decisions on re-opening of schools have impacted plans on restarting activities by some state associations. In most cases, if schools have not returned to in-person learning and are continuing in a virtual format, sports and other activities are not permitted. It appears that some states may be reconsidering that stance; however, and given the right circumstances, this could open up activities for more students.

While some schools may be forced to start classes virtually, lower-risk sports such as golf, tennis and cross country (with modifications), which are conducted outdoors and have built-in physical distancing by the nature of the sport, may be acceptable.

From what I've seen and been told in my area:

• Some officials who officiated multiple fall sports have opted to drop one or more sports to focus on one sport only.
• Renewals in my association appear to be way down, and some officials have already chosen to drop one or more sports they officiated in the past. This could be for any of the following:
  (a) The general uncertainty of schools reopening and sports being allowed to have their seasons.
  (b) Older officials not wanting to put themselves at risk.
  (c) People waiting until the new extended deadline to register when they hope to have more idea about whether their sports will be played in some capacity.
  (d) The usual attrition from people unwilling or unable to continue officiating.

Basketball, baseball, and softball are played near daily here. It's not uncommon for many officials to be asked to work 5-6 days a week, especially in the last two sports, out of necessity because of how thin the ranks are -- especially for spring sports whose 4:00 and 4:30 PM start times preclude anyone working 9-5 to officiate those sports/games. As it stands now, enough officials being sick, injured, or last-second call-offs is enough to drive assignors crazy as they ensure the varsity games are sufficiently covered even if it means sub-varsity games end up being officiated solo.

Adding to the issue here was the local CYO's decision to stop playing games on Sunday except for Thanksgiving and Christmas tournaments. Many Sunday games have been moved to weeknights which means CYO assignors are now competing with high school assignors to find officials for those games. As a result, some of these CYO night games in basketball might have one or both officials coming from a nearby 4:00 freshman game to cover one or two CYO games starting at 6:00 (sometimes moved to 6:15 or 6:30 to accommodate those officials, or simply started as soon as possible once the officials arrive and take the court).

With the likelihood that this year's officiating groups will be even thinner than prior years, I easily see more officials that predominantly work sub-varsity games being asked to take on the occasional varsity game on an as-needed basis for better or worse.

One last concern might be what happens if a player or coach in a game contracts COVID-19. In basketball, it's possible that all three crews (and up to seven officials) would need to self-quarantine for two weeks -- giving assignors that much more of a headache as they try to keep as many games covered as possible.