Crossing Over in College Basketball

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by ilyazhito

One of the reasons I started this thread is because I read about how you did this. In the "Can A College Basketball Official Work Both Sexes" thread, you mentioned that you were a women's college official in the early 2000s for about two years, but then you got disillusioned and stopped doing women's college basketball. You tried out and eventually got hired as a men's official.

The officiating industry has changed since then, so I would like to know if it is still possible. There are female officials who now work men's college basketball (Amy Bonner is probably the most prominent example), but they did not get into men's basketball the traditional way. They were recruited due to their success in women's college or international basketball.

If I understand correctly, I would be fighting an uphill battle to try out as a men's college official, because many assigners do not believe that women's college officials are good. This might be due to the philosophical, rules, and mechanics differences between the two sides.

The mechanics part won't be that difficult, because men's mechanics share a lot in common with NFHS. I would need to get used to the extra signals that are not in NFHS and the restricted area. I could also adapt to men's rules with enough game experience.

Are there differences in how coaches interact with men's officials as compared to women's officials? I have seen the videos of coaches behaving badly in both men's and women's games (Kim Mulkey, Dan Hurley, and Steve Forbes are the most recent examples that come to mind), but I don't have any other points of reference.

There are some differences in how men's and women's officials deal with coaches. I do notice that women's officials are encouraged to use the stop sign when warning coaches, because it shows up on film. I've not seen men's officials using the stop sign as often, probably because it can aggravate the coach. Women also have a formal warning for behavior, like NFHS, but men don't.

The situation that I did is also very different than it is today. For one the assigning process was not as regimented. Guys got hired a lot without having to prove it in camp or work for someone who did not assign high school ball. We also had every level imaginable other than D1 assigned by a local guy. That is not the case in other parts of the country. There are places that have no NAIA, but only JUCO and D2. There are places that have no NAIA, but only D2. And I could give many more examples based on where you are in the country.

It also took a few years to get to the Men's side. I worked some JUCO as a fill in, but it would be only about 2 or 3 games total a season until I got into an NAIA league. Even then I only worked a handful of games. It was not until a D1 friend of mine told me to go to a camp I never would have imagined and I would get hired. That was less than 7 years ago. Now I work mostly a college schedule on Saturdays. It is not what you think, trust me on that one.

Peace