Keeping new officials?

[Tim Roden]

J. I don't think that a rookie official should be turning down JV games. I called my first girls JV game in the last week of december and my first boys JV game in January of my first season. They were a challenge to me. My second boys JV game was between 5A schools and my third boys JV game was between two schools that two years down the road would be class 4A and 5A state champions. I don't think I could have done them except I had Varisty level officials working with me. I think that is the key. When you put a newer official in a new situation, it is always best to have an experienced official as one of the partners. When I called a BCI game between two teams who only had 5 players who couldn't slam, my partner was a 17 year veteran. I think you should get into these games as quickly as posible but I still say, to get your feet wet, do freshman. Work some sophmore game but I think these are the toughest since these are players who couldn't make Varsity or JV.

You need to find a way to get in 100 games a year. I missed this year. I only did 87 this year because of the moving I did in June and July. I was just reading in NFOA's magazine under football, that you need to call 100 games and make 100 mistakes before your ready for Varsity. In Basketball, you need to call 100 games/year for three years before you are ready for varsity and they need to be progressively better games. 100 1A girls JV games won't help you if you arn't calling 5A Boys and Girls JV too. A 5A boys JV game can be just as much or more challenging then a 2A boys Varsity. A 2A JV game is about the same as a 5A Freshman game.