How Much Has Your Apearence Hurt You,Or Helped You As A Referee

[Peter Devana]

By the way,
Do you have the E-mail address of your Pres. Assignor , or commissioner.
Please forward.

[JRutledge]

Now I have to get out of the game because you (from Canada I might add, and did not realize that most of the officials on this board did not answer to Hank Nichols of the NCAA) disagree with me. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. This is not the basketball court and you do not know me!!!!! Because I give a crap about what you think (and you are from Canada, I might add) about an issue that is obviously regional at best. I live in Illinois, in Illinois we do things differently from Michigan or Georgia, or California, or New York State. I say this because Mick (who lives in Michigan), who I have much respect for lives in a state that has the girls season before the boys season. Now because I do football and many other basketball officials that I know do too, I just would not be doing girls basketball. I do not know if Mick cares either way, but that is how I feel. And since I live close to Iowa, they have the same officials do Girls and Boys varsity in the same night. Most Illinois officials that "I" know, would be upset if they had to do both boys and girls in one night. And I know Iowa officials that love the system they are under. More power to you and anyone else that disagrees with each other, but here in the U.S. we are entitled to do that. And I respect everyone's right to have their own opinion.

We cannot even agree with each other from different states, how in the world do you think I am going to agree with people in other parts of the world about a sport that is not approached with the same passion as it is here. Kids do not grow up here and play hockey or soccer for fun the same way we play basketball and football in this state. I just came from one of the biggest holiday tournaments in the country at the HS level and it is snowing constantly and the visibility is horrible and the gym was packed. Now would that passion for the sport be the same in California or West Virginia? I really do not know.

We are not going to see the world the same, get over it!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by Peter Devana
I hope seriously, for the game, that your evaluator has been monitoring your diatrabe and gets you out of the game.

[JRutledge]

Which one, there is not one person that does any kind of assigning like that. And I would not have the time because this year alone I have probably worked for 40 different people. So I would not know where to start.

Originally posted by Peter Devana
By the way,
Do you have the E-mail address of your Pres. Assignor , or commissioner.
Please forward.

[Peter Devana]

Again, you have not answereed my question- please read my last thread.
It doesn't matter that I'm from Canada. What matters is that I, and many of the officials on this site, understand, and we are trying to help you. Besides the game was invented by a Canadian- Mr. Naismith- And that's a Fact!!!!!

[JRutledge]

Again, we are not going to agree on this. I really do not care where the game was "so called" invented, like that was the point. But my point is where we are today. Most of the United States might be under NF rules, but we all do not go by the same rules. Many states have their own rules and own styles in mechanics and practices. So the fact that you live in Canada and I live in a certain state in the United States is the problem.

I go to several camps a year, I have never, never, and I mean never heard them tell us to do what you suggest, period!!! And the tournament I came from tonite and the officials there, would think you are nuts in what you believe. But I am the one that needs help?

Originally posted by Peter Devana
Again, you have not answereed my question- please read my last thread.
It doesn't matter that I'm from Canada. What matters is that I, and many of the officials on this site, understand, and we are trying to help you. Besides the game was invented by a Canadian- Mr. Naismith- And that's a Fact!!!!!

[Edited by JRutledge on Dec 30th, 2000 at 02:29 AM]

[JRutledge]

Naismith thought of the game in Canada and had the first game played in Ohio, I believe. But who cares?

Originally posted by JRutledge
Again, we are not going to agree on this. I really do not care where the game was "so called" invented, like that was the point. But my point is where we are today. Most of the United States might be under NF rules, but we all do not go by the same rules. Many states have their own rules and own styles in mechanics and practices. So the fact that you live in Canada and I live in a certain state in the United States is the problem.

I go to several camps a year, I have never, never, and I mean never heard them tell us to do what you suggest, period!!! And the tournament I came from tonite and the officials there, would think you are nuts in what you believe. But I am the one that needs help?

[Edited by JRutledge on Dec 30th, 2000 at 02:29 AM]

[Peter Devana]

Give me one name and I will have done the game a service!!!
Are you afraid? I am only going to submit the opinions you have submitted on this site! Take a chance! If You win I quit after 40 years!!!

[JRutledge]

Going to give you any name of anyone.

Comments deleted - please abide by forum guidelines.

If you are upset about the fat thing, then you need to ask them yourself. As I told you, this assignor made this comment to a room full of people telling them what they were looking for in college officials. As a matter of fact, he made a comment about himself and the weight he could afford to lose. And when he talked about physical appearance, he brought up things like gender, race, weight. So if you do not want to believe that, that is your problem. But I am not going to give you friends names or people that I work with because you do not agree with what is asked of us officals in my neck of the woods. You might be a serial killer, I have know way of knowing. If it makes you happy and you do a little research, you can get many assignors in all kinds of ways. That information is all over the place and sometimes on the web, so be my guest, find it yourself. How do you think I found out that information myself.

I am an independent contractor, there is not a single person that has that much affect on my career or anyone else that I have ever come in contact with. If one person will not hire you, there are several that will.

Originally posted by Peter Devana
Give me one name and I will have done the game a service!!!
Are you afraid? I am only going to submit the opinions you have submitted on this site! Take a chance! If You win I quit after 40 years!!!

[Edited by Admin on Jan 3rd, 2001 at 05:05 PM]

[Love2ref4Ever]

I must share this story with my fellow officials. In the summer of 1998 I attended a camp in Virgina, Now, I already knew that I was out of shape,But decided to go anyway because you can still learn and improve as a official even if you are out of shape!Now back to the story,On the last night of this camp they have what is called NBA night. Where you buy a $1.00 raffle ticket,And when one of the staff members( One of the NBA officials on staff) pulls your number out of a hat,you have 30 seconds to go to the front of the room and pick a prize off of the table.When he got to my number,This paticular staff member discribe me as a referee that looked like he was 9 months pregnant! Now did that hurt my feelings? Hell yeah! But after that expierence, I said I am going to loose this weight! And this is my first time sharing this story with anyone.And you know what, I am looking forward to seeing him again. Now! A funny thing also happened to me,One of the organizations I belong to called SUBOA issued all of the officials numbers to be worn on the back of our referee game shirts. I got number 56 the same number as the staff member who's comment helped me to loose weight!

[mick]

"Imprisoned in every fat man a thin one is wildly signaling to be let out."
Cyril Vernon Connolly, The Unquiet Grave, 1945

[MattRef]

I am a firefighter/paramedic on my normal job, and one thing that has struck me is that no one is talking about how it affects them physically. I had to try to resuscitate a HS footbal ref (without success) because he had a beer belly and a huge cardiac history. I just got off knee surgery, myself, and am working very hard to get back into shape. Does someone know how many refs are hauled to the hospital or die each year during the game? I am not sure, and if someone knows, speak up. Thanks!
Matt

[JRutledge]

I do not know how many, but I do know of an official had a heart attack and lived during a game. But he was slim and you would think an athletic person. But I am sure the more weight you have on you, it probably heightens the probablility of physical problems. But that is just what I know about weight and how it affects you.

Originally posted by MattRef
I am a firefighter/paramedic on my normal job, and one thing that has struck me is that no one is talking about how it affects them physically. I had to try to resuscitate a HS footbal ref (without success) because he had a beer belly and a huge cardiac history. I just got off knee surgery, myself, and am working very hard to get back into shape. Does someone know how many refs are hauled to the hospital or die each year during the game? I am not sure, and if someone knows, speak up. Thanks!
Matt

[donna23]

I do believe that you have to look the part. I am a few pounds over weight my self. I do get up and down the court and can run with the best of them. We don't have any rules in our association about weight. We do have officials that will not get varisty games because they are overweight. I will be working on my weight because I want to go to camps this summer and don't want to look like a slob.

[Alaska Ref]

JRutledge,

Please send me an E-Mail, would like to talk about life in Northern Illinois.

Correction: I have seen BEER BELLYS but never a BEAR BELLY except on a BEAR ! ! !

Later

[Paul in Seattle]

Y'all,

Good to be back on topic. My story (which is kinda long, feel free to skip it):

This is my fifth year doing HS girls' games, second year on the varsity list. Once I got comfortable on the court, my evaluations started following a general pattern: "Reffed a good game, good judgement, good positioning...here are a few things you can improve...and oh, by the way, has anyone talked to you about the way you run? You look kinda funny out there..."

Yes, my name is Paul, and I run wrong. ("Hi, Paul.")

I'm tall and thin, but my appearance problem has always been that I don't look right when I run. All of my evaluators agreed that I didn't run correctly, but no two could agree on how to fix it. "Pump your arms more." "Get your knees higher." "Get up on the balls of your feet." "No, run heel-toe." "Kick backwards so you look like you're really moving." I became obsessed with "running right." I checked out books on running: they all said "whatever you do naturally is probably right." Clearly, these authors had never seen me run! Net result: I was terribly confused about what to do, and horribly frustrated because I felt that this would put a glass ceiling on my officiating progress (kinda like being overweight does, I'm sure).

But then I went to camp this summer...where I ran into an evaluator who really, really put it into perspective for me. He said he really liked the game I called--he could tell I was sincere, knew the game, and could manage the game. He gave me a great compliment, telling me that "I've seen you work, and I know I'd put you on any game, no matter how big." So, just as my ego was getting big, he said: "But first impressions are everything, and no matter how good a game you have, they'll remember you as the ref that runs funny. So until you get this licked, you're going to have problems."

So I went home, and decided to give a good deal of my money to a personal trainer (a former Russian Olympic distance runner!) She busted my butt for a couple months, and for the first time, I wasn't out of shape when the season started this year. Also, my camp evaluator said he'd call my assignor to put in a good word for me...that certainly doesn't hurt! Anyway, the story right now...nobody (evaluators, friends, anyone else) has said a word about my running yet this year. I may get through the whole season without hearing about how I look on the floor! And it's nice to know that I'll be evaluated on my judgement, positioning, and game management this year instead of appearance. Not that it's wrong to point out my appearance--I have no problem with the people who did that (after all, in our avocation, perception is reality). But I think now, like the guy at camp, they're really looking at my game instead of at my looks.

Anyway...to answer the original question...yeah, my appearance has impacted my career. But I'm getting past it now, I think.

Thanks for reading--
Paul

[Edited by Paul in Seattle on Jan 1st, 2001 at 03:50 PM]