Movin' on up!

[FredFan7]

HA! I was in college at the time and the whole "GPA" thing kept a hall of fame officiating career in check! ;-)

Back to the meat of my message. For those of you who are younger than 30, time is on your side in your officiating career. Work hard, and don't let impatience spoil a fun ride. It almost spoiled mine the first time around!

[FHSUref]

The situation differs from state to state but on average, it looks like the avg. time is 3-5 years. In Western Kansas, that time is a little lower. I know guys who worked on our Intramural staff last spring and registered this year and have already worked a handful of varsity games. This is due to the lack of officials in this area. The state moved to 3 man mechanics a few years ago at every class (1A-6A) and that has enabled younger or new officials to advance quicker.

I have been officiatin basketball for four years. I have had a full varsity schedule (27 dates)for three of those years. I was lucky enough to work post season last year and this year, I was nominated by the coaches to work the first two nights of the state tournament. I am looking forward to it!

I speak from experience when i say that alot of getting the assignments has to do with who you know (who can get you games), who your partners are because you are only as good as your partners and your work habits. Do you call a good game, Do you hustle, Do you look professional, etc...

[smoref]

I have to agree woth everything that has been said. Camps are very important.

tmoegun mentioned mentors and I feel that this is almost as important as camps. I am fortunate enough to have a mentor locally who helps out through my HS season and a have another mentor that lives in another state but he works 5 D1 confrences. He makes sure that he works at the camps that I go to so he can work with me and we talk almost every week during the season. Both of these guys have been so important to my delevopment as an official.

I was told at my first HS camp I went to after my first HS season to get a mentor and when your ready be a mentor.

[ref18]

i've already got 300-400 games under my belt. (or waistband of my beltless slacks ) Me and my dad started at the same time, and he got a full scheduel of highschool games. (but of course he isn't as good as me ) Now with the tournament ball, we work together most of the time, so i can't really try to find another partner, i think i'm just going to have to wait till i'm done high school. I'm going to a few more camps this summer, hopefully i'll get my first high school game in the 04-05 season.

[FHSUref]

One of the administrators in this area (that understands the need to develop officials before putting them into the fire) hosts a JV basketball tournament at the beginning of every season. You send an application (if you are a younger official) and he sets you up with a veteran official. You work one game (and get paid $25 as well) and they video tape you during the game. Once your game is over, you and the veteran official go into a room where there is a projector and vcr. You get to watch yourself on film and with the help of the veteran official receive some good feedback as well as constructive help for mechanics and floor positioning. Is there anyone else around that has heard of anything like this?

[BigGref]

Hey I would just like to say thanks a lot for all of the great replies. My original message was sent before I got passed up on an Intramural Championship Game. I was pretty pissed off all day today, trying to find anyone but myself to blame. Couldn't find too many takers so I tried to break down why I was passed up; 1 reason I strongly believe that I was passed up was because of a recent game that I did that turned into a T fest. I let player's language get to me, even though they were throwin' around the F word like it was nothing, and the fact that 1/2 the team was noticeably intoxicated and smelled of alcohol. I was put in a tight situation and I guess I didn't do as well as I would hoped.

So after reading these replies I have learned a lot of things; most importantly, the one thing I said in my original post (which was the fact that I was not being impatient), was turned around at me. Being only a couple of years older than ref18 I now know that I must be patient and just go with the flow; it will lead me to a beautiful river one day, and hopefully then, the Ocean! Thanks again for all of your posts and good luck if you still have games to do!

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally posted by BigGref

Being only a couple of years older than ref18 I now know that I must be patient and just go with the flow; it will lead me to a beautiful river one day, and hopefully then, the Ocean!

And then you can look forward to going upriver to spawn.

I know I do!

[BigGref]

I'll try to carry the metaphor a little further...

My patience spawns others into "going with the flow!"

I'm much happier now anyways; I just tripled my money in a poker game ($5 buy-in, nothing big). Just goes to show that there is yin and yang to every human experience, just "go with the flow!"

[dblref]

tomegun:

I do in fact speak up for some of the "junior" officials. I think it is very important to do so. Because I can leave work at basically any time I need to (good boss), I work a lot of freshman games and I am teamed with a "newbie". We don't have regular partners at any level. Sometimes it is a lot of fun working with them, and sometimes it seems like a lost cause depending on whether they really want honest feedback or not. Our evaluations are self-initiated at the non-varsity level. We have a standard form to use and the official writes a short paragraph about what they think they did well and what they think they need to improve. The form is emailed to the varsity official for their comments. All varsity officials are strongly encourage to watch as much of the JV game as possible, so they can provide feedback. About the only time you will get feedback in a freshman game is if you have a varsity official as a partner. I was lucky enough to have a good mentor, so I try to give back.