Another Referee Assault ...

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

This is why I do not do middle school at all. Many times we have less than ideal accommodations ... not worth the hassle ...

A top notch experienced varsity official like yourself shouldn't even be considering middle school games, even middle school games that might be "worth the hassle". I'm sure that your varsity assigners, in two states, and your various college assigners would prefer for you to keep your calendar open. Even if you wanted to, would you have time to do any middle school games? I'm pretty sure that your high school and college schedule is already pretty full without any middle school games.

I obviously can't speak for Illinois or Indiana, but middle school games here in my little corner of Connecticut are not necessarily "games from hell".

My high school assigner assigns many middle school games in my local area, and he expects everyone involved, officials, site directors, players, and coaches to be as "professional" as possible. He expects reports about any unsporting activity and follows up with the school principals, site directors, and athletic directors. And the pay is pretty good, the same ($65.99) as a high school junior varsity game. Also, he almost always assigns middle school games "close to home", no fifty-five mile one way drives for those of us that work middle school games, most games are in towns contiguous to our hometowns.

Yes, there are some things missing in middle school games that we always have in high school varsity games. Seldom do we have National Anthems, player introductions (almost never), and cheerleaders. Sometimes we have students working the table, and seldom do we have scoreboards that show team fouls, so we always have to be on our toes.

But the coaches coach, the kids play hard, the fans cheer for the players, and the games are challenging to work for the officials. It's "real" basketball.

All of us are aware in advance that there are never dressing areas and showers available, so we all come dressed in uniform, it's never a surprise to us that these amenities aren't available.

Would I prefer to be working high school varsity games? Sure.

But with severe arthritis in my right foot, that's not possible.

I'm retired from my day job, I'm available for mid-afternoon games, not many officials are available for these hard to assign mid-afternoon games, so I'm desperately needed.

And middle school coaches and site directors appreciate an experienced official like me working their games, even it I can't sprint "gazelle-like" up and down the court.

And my assigner, training committees, and evaluators appreciate me giving pointers to the young'uns that I often work with.