Intermural

[youngbballref]

Hello ALL! Just wondering if Intermural basketball would be a good first way to start out in officiating? I am going to see about it and see if I can get officiating with intermural soon.

Thanks

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by youngbballref
Hello ALL! Just wondering if Intermural basketball would be a good first way to start out in officiating? I am going to see about it and see if I can get officiating with intermural soon.

Thanks

I would say no. To me anything that does not require standards for the officiating is a crap shoot. You have no idea what you might get. I would only recommend leagues or groups that require some kind of training from officials. If this league does not do that, you are not going to learn much from it in my opinion. I have only really spent my career officiating "organized" basketball. I did some intermural basketball when I was in HS, but I had no idea what I was calling and used my TV knowledge to officiate the games. That does nothing for you in my opinion.

Peace

[cmathews]

Jrut hit it right on the head....you need the organization. The unorganized stuff will just cause problems early on...

[TriggerMN]

Intramural ball in college is where I got my start. It worked out well for me...

I will say though that the two guys who "trained" us were very good officials in their own right, one being a state-tournament caliber high school official, and the other being a division 1 official. Therefore, there wasn't any screwing around, and if you weren't paying attention and continually trying to improve, they wouldn't have time for you.

[ocreferee]

I too did a lot of intramural ball in college. There I was trained by a D1 men's official and the NBA's George Toliver. It lead to more work for George's AAU program and some mentoring. A couple of years later I was helping with the instruction and training (I had moved quickly up the locl HS ladder) and now I am happy to say one of my trainees is working varsity ball 2 years out of school.

Of course, it truly depends on the school you attend. Some places are happy just to have bodies and don't do any training. Others are run by top notch people who work hard at making their officials better.
Best of luck to you!

[mick]

Originally posted by youngbballref
Hello ALL! Just wondering if Intermural basketball would be a good first way to start out in officiating? I am going to see about it and see if I can get officiating with intermural soon.

Thanks

Mike,
The best place to learn is on the floor, but check with your mentor for his opinion and other possibilities in your area.
I started officiating intramurals in college. It was a learning experience, but not the best choice available.
Call some Athletic Directors in your area for some possible tournaments coming up.
Have you joined an officials association yet?
mick

[whistleone]

Being an intramural director, I've got to disagree with those that say it's not a good place to start. Exceptions to the last statement: If the intramural program is unorganized and does not offer training and/or evaluation, then there are probably better options; If your local association does a good job of training new officials and providing opportunities to work on your skills, then that's probably the way to go.

My intramural officials get 100% more training than any new official in our association. I take them through at least 5 hours of rules, mechanics and on the court training before they ever officiate. I started as an intramural official and I've yet to experience many things more difficult in officiating than calling a game of my peers. Imagine officiating a game knowing that the next day you'll have to face your professor that you just T'd the night before.

youngbballref: Bottom line-it's a place to start. Hopefully your intramural director can offer you a positive experience and the training you need. They may also be able to help you make contacts with local schools and/or associations. If you don't find what you're looking for, transfer to my school and I'll get you on the right track.

[Axe Man]

I'd love to say that I was the one who trained Ocreferee. I just dealt with all the fun situations he created. I will agree with whistleone. Being an IM director, it is a good place to start. We don't do anything exceptional in our training but I can tell you that we do quite a bit more than the local association. Indiana is a take test and your good state. I currently have 8 officials who are licened with the state. They get a good number of games at local middle school because I officiate and the AD's know that we have a pool to pull from. I will agree with everyone else, where ever you start at, make sure that it is organized well and that you have someone working with you. Past that, have fun and don't take the things participants say personally.

[blindzebra]

It is not your best option,but officiating as many games as you can is never a bad thing.If you can get experience
calling a game and learn some game management skills,it is worth it.

You will have some trouble adjusting to doing things the right way if this program lacks direction,but from my experience the good outweighs the bad.

[Nevadaref]

I started in college intramurals. The two guys who ran our program were both certified IAABO HS officials and taught good stuff. They also brought in some DI and DII guys to talk to us. The program was organized and huge. It was tons of fun and I would even go back and do it again if I still lived there. I would never have started officiating if it weren't for the intramurals program. I had no interest in starting with rec or youth leagues and dealing with the parents. Officiating your peers in school is both challenging and fun. I highly recommend that you explore this option and see if the program works for you.

[dblref]

Originally posted by ocreferee
I too did a lot of intramural ball in college. There I was trained by a D1 men's official and the NBA's George Toliver. It lead to more work for George's AAU program and some mentoring. A couple of years later I was helping with the instruction and training (I had moved quickly up the locl HS ladder) and now I am happy to say one of my trainees is working varsity ball 2 years out of school.

Of course, it truly depends on the school you attend. Some places are happy just to have bodies and don't do any training. Others are run by top notch people who work hard at making their officials better.
Best of luck to you!

OC: Toliver's camp is excellent. I attended 4 or 5 years ago and also got the opportunity to do one of his AAU games. Think his team was called the "hotshots"?

[mick]

Originally posted by Nevadaref
I had no interest in starting with rec or youth leagues and dealing with the parents. Officiating your peers in school is both challenging and fun.

Nevadaref,
youngbballref is in high school.
mick

[Mark Dexter]

Originally posted by whistleone
I started as an intramural official and I've yet to experience many things more difficult in officiating than calling a game of my peers.

Amen!

If you can put up with *&@# from every non-DI varsity player at a college (including, oftentimes, hearing it for several days) you can put up with anything from any coach.

[mick]

Originally posted by Mark Dexter

Amen!

If you can put up with *&@# from every non-DI varsity player at a college (including, oftentimes, hearing it for several days) you can put up with anything from any coach.

Be careful for what you wish.
Peers are preludes.

[bigwes68]

I call intramural basketball right now, and I call high school football and baseball in season. I can honestly tell you, I've never come close to having as much trouble in any high school game in any sport from anyone as I have in intramurals. If you are a student and an intramural ref, the players will give you crap to no end. And a lot of the intramural officials we have truly are horrible officials that have no clue what they're doing. So even if your mechanics and rules knowledge is top-notch, your partner might not have a clue and you're running a one-man game out there.