I rather spend one night driving a couple hours for $190 then spending three nights driving 30 to 45 minutes for $65 a pop. A night working high school ball, no matter how close to home, is still a night away from loved ones.

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Exactly. Justifies staying away from home. And some of those games are much more than $200 as well.

Peace

Show Me the Money ...
 

Those checks also matter when one has a family. A know a lot of guys that use their basketball fees for golf, poker nights, fishing/hunting vacations, sports season/regular tickets, or casinos. One colleague has a separate bank account just for his basketball money, it's his money, not his family's money.

While I had many reasons to officiate, for the first thirty years (teachers were not always appropriately well paid in Connecticut) one main reason was to support my family, especially the kid's college fund. It was just about the only reason I worked recreation/travel basketball for all those many years.

You're correct. I missed reading my three kids bedtime stories, and left the busy and hectic bath/bed routine solely to my wife four, or five, weeknights a week from early December through early March for my kid's entire childhood.

But it was actually the Saturdays and Sundays that kept me away from small college basketball. I couldn't imagine spending an entire weekend day away from the family, and missing my kids participate in basketball, gymnastics, indoor track, drama, or dance, especially after being away most weeknights.

Wow. I save my officiating money in a separate bank account (makes it easier for bookkeeping). But then the vast majority of it gets spent on our family vacation. I justify the nights away from my family by taking them on a trip for a week every summer. :)

When I first started officiating my High School association only paid us at the end of the season. So every March I would take that money and first pay off all my credit cards.

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Money (Pink Floyd, 1973) ...
 

Approximately half of the school systems (high schools and middle schools), here in my little corner of Connecticut use ArbiterPay, and I elect to get the money in the form of a direct deposit into my checking account rather than as a check, or a debit card. I let the money accumulate in ArbiterPay all season long, occasionally checking to insure that I was paid, and only transfer the sum total into my checking account at the end of the season, like a giant balloon payment. Part of the money usually goes to my tax accounting firm, Dewey, Cheatem and Howe. Some of the rest usually pre-pays (gets me a discount) my lawn maintenance company (fertilizer, insecticide, herbicide, lime) for the upcoming season.

I wasn't a big fan at first, worried about ArbiterPay having my bank account information and Social Security Number, but I'm now a fan, although I still like opening up my mailbox and occasionally finding a nice surprise check from non-ArbiterPay school systems.

You are still a fan after the all the security breaches they've had? After the last one, I had to change my bank account number and I ordered one of their debit cards to limit my exposure from their ineptness as much as possible.

I don't get paid by ArbiterPay very often, but I move the money to the debit card ASAP and find an excuse to spend it shortly after that. It's bad enough they have my SSN, they aren't getting another bank account number for me for somebody to hack.

And there are non-money reasons for choosing college over HS, as well. Even at lower levels.

At the top of my list, the coaches are smarter and better-behaved. And they are used to getting penalized when they misbehave. I have worked with countless HS officials who wouldn't call a T if their life depended on it. So I end up cleaning their mess.

Old Dog, New Tricks ...
 

So my initial worries were not unfounded. And I thought that I was just being an old man not wanting change and being afraid of technology.

Have to go now and yell at neighbor kids to get off my front lawn. I may have to turn the hose on them.

Again at the end of the day, it is personal what you do or what you enjoy. You can do whatever you wish with your time. My point again is if I am going to be away for the same amount of time, I would rather make a much bigger check. Even in a D2 league I work those checks are like 5 times more per game. They were much needed this past season when the COVID situation changed the entire season and I got to work doubleheaders in one league and was gone on a Friday-Saturday. My wife loved those checks.

Also, only Saturdays are really common for college games and those games are much earlier than high school games might typically play. So I will be home in the early evening as opposed to later in the evening on a Saturday. Either way, my family can come with me too, which they have on several occasions. My wife does not mind or make a big deal out of it. Then again I am not working 6 and 7 nights a week like many of my counterparts who seem to never stay home working every level imaginable. That is not me at all. I only work Boys varsity basketball and Men's college. Four nights a week is not unusual and the other days I am home. My wife realized a long time ago that I have a passion for this and feels it is good for my overall mental health to officiate. So I am not fighting these battles at home for what I do in officiating. A good part of the spring and the summer is for them. And even if I officiated then, it gives us some money for other things. It is a win-win.

Peace

Date Night In Connecticut ...
 

Back before we had kids, unlike many of my colleagues who hated Saturday night high school games, I liked them, and actually let my assigner know that I liked them. My wife would come with me to the games, and we would go out to dinner afterward, enjoying out of town restaurants that we would normally not go to.

Since my kids graduated from college, with my mortgage, and car, paid off, I no longer officiate for the money. I wouldn't do it for free (because of travel, rush hour traffic, meetings, politics, uniforms, equipment, fees, dues, etc.), but I do it because I have passion for basketball officiating.

With chronic orthopedic problems, I have limited myself to middle school games over the last three seasons, and to prepare for a certain more painful future, I've taken a very active role on my local board's mechanics training committee.

I can see paying annual board dues well into the future, even if my only job is to sell raffle tickets before board meetings, and attending the annual banquet, catching up and shooting the breeze with my colleagues, and yanking their chains (my local colleagues have a reputation as being expert ball busters, if somebody doesn't say something bad about you, they don't like you). I'll stop paying my annual board dues when they pry my raffle tickets, and my banquet open bar gin and tonic, from my cold, dead hands.

How's that for passion?

Yep, that is the number one reason I always want to work a college game on Saturday rather than a high school game. High schools schedule their Saturday games at night, while almost all of my Saturday college games are in the afternoon.


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Yep, since I no longer officiate because I need the money, which is the original reason I got into it, now I want to work games that I enjoy working and give me the most satisfaction.

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And you work with officials that are better trained, understand the philosophies of the people they work for and you do not have to discuss things that you do with high school only officials. That is not to say that you cannot have issues with college officials, but if I am the Referee on the game, I can answer directly to the supervisor and fill out an evaluation of all the officials I work with that night. They know this so they follow what is the protocols or might get called on it by either the Referee or the Supervisor wondering what took place. More accountability IMO.

Peace

Could you give an example? I've seen HS officials make marginal calls on fouls and violations, reward offense-initiated contact, and expect calls with bodies on the floor. Are those the things you are referring to?

On a different note, I am on board with good female officials advancing. The problem is when they are promoted because they are female rather than due to ability.