How do officials dress when arriving to a game (Varsity, College, Professional)?Â* Are there certain requirements in some associations?Â* I know our association offers nice Polo shirts for purchase and my crew wears them uniformly, however this is not mandatory.Â* I see some officials wearing a tie, but when someone else on the crew is in khakis and a t-shirt it looks awful.Â* How is this handled elsewhere?Â* Please advise.
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I think you answered your own question. Wearing a suit and tie is great when that's the norm. But if you're overdressed, it can be ackward. It is better to be a bit overdressed as opposed to underdressed, but take the lead from the guys who are already there.

[Edited by Jay R on Jul 21st, 2004 at 12:02 PM]

In my high school assoc it is requested that for varsity games you wear dockers and a polo shirt but there are still some guys that come in jeans and t-shirts.

In Junior College we are required to at minimum dress in buisness casual.

Anything above JC we are required to were at least a nice shirt (if not a tie) and a sports coat.

I think we need to make it clear that everyone cannot always wear a suit because of the job they have. That might be a problem for some to come in a suit if they are a contractor and do not work directly out of an office. So I would always talk to my assignor about that if you feel that is a problem.

I think the main issue is to wear things that represent professional look. You are going to a game so wearing a suit is not always the best thing, but there are folks that wear that at their business. I try to wear foliating polo shirts or something that represent my job in a polo shirt. I always wear nice slacks and dress shoes. I do this at every varsity and college game I work.

Now I think that this has to be made clear. You should do the same if you are working a sophomore or JV game on the same night or right before a varsity ball game. You will be seen by people that would not ordinarily attend a lower level game and you need to impress those with your professionalism. When you are doing a JV Saturday morning game, wear something that you are comfortable in.

Peace

Doesn't anyone show up to their games dressed to referee??

I did not see the smile or any funny line, but I hope that this is a joke? ;)

Peace

The only time I don't show up in my refereeing uniform is when I'm coming to a game straight from school. In my area, unless it is a college game, most people show up dressed to referee, unless they just came from work or school.

On the rare occassion that I'm doing a middle school game, I'll come dressed. Only because they rarely are prepared to have a secure place to change and leave your stuff.

As for high school at any level, the guys I've seen coming dressed are the guys showing up 2 minutes before the game.

Use the time to change and pre-game as you do it.

I agree with Bildzebra. if you have definite knowledge that there will be no place to dress then you have to do what you have to do. Otherwise it is my beliefe that you should NEVER show up dressed. It think it looks really tacky and says to everyone "hey look, i'm a ref".

I can really relate to the fact that the ones that do show up that way are the ones who show up at 5 minutes before start. 90% of my games last year were spent sitting in the officials room waiting for my partner to arrive 5 minutes before game time. I always try to get there 1 hour before.

cm - getting to the gym an hour before game time is tough for most officials what with their jobs taking precedent. Ideally, I try to get to the gym 40 minutes before tip-off. That allows 10 minutes to get dressed, 15 minutes for pre-game and arrival on floor 15 minutes before game time to check books and speak to captains. Of course, most times I have to combine the dressing with pre-game because I can't get off work more than 1 hour before game (need to allow driving time to get there).

I wasn't saying everyone needs to get there an hour beforehand. That is just my personal goal. It gives me time to get my head in to the game and forgot about the days issues.

In Arizona we have a mentoring program in place, so the varsity officials are expected to watch around a half of the JV game. We need to get there mid-second quarter to do that. I usually see most of the second, all of the third, and go in at around the 6 minute mark in the 4th to get dressed. We do most of our pre-game while observing the JV refs.

It's pretty routine in this area for officials to show up dressed for both middle school and JV football and basketball games. In baseball and softball, most umpires arrived dressed, no matter what the level of play.

Up here, many schools don't have change facilities readily available for referees. Unless I'm at the stadium, I always come dressed to ref a football game, and I always come dressed to ref basketball. Its easier to make sure I've got everything packed when I'm wearing it than getting to the gym and realizing i've forgotten an undershirt or pants.

cm - nobody can criticize you for being too early. And I realize you weren't recommending this for all officials. I just wanted to point out it is tough to officiate while meeting the demands of your main career. Geez I wish I could make a career out of officiating! It makes me feel ALIVE.

Blindzebra - so do you get to speak to the JV officials re their game when they are showering and getting dressed? Seems like a good program.

We talk to them at halftime of their game and we have a website where we give them an electronic evaluation. They are encouraged to stay for our first half and to take part in our halftime talk.

Not a fair comment, IMO.

Start times vary, some HS games start as early as 5:00 or 6:00. For the officials that can make those games, they're often still tight for time.

You imply that those who show up changed are unprofessional. In my experience, that's simply not the case.

As Rut said, adjustments and flexibility must be recognized when they are reasonable and justified. Is it preferable to show up, dressed neatly, and change as you're pre-gaming? Absolutely. Is that always possible? I doubt it.

How is it not fair, if in my experience, guys showing up dressed are the ones showing up right before game time?

The showing up at game time IS unprofessional.It is unfair and stressful to their partner, and it causes stress for the school's AD. If an official can't get there at least 30 minutes before the game, they should not be working the game.

I don't think anyone should get bent out of shape over someone's thinking on this subject. We all have had our own experiences. For me, when an official comes to the game dressed it says something about that official more times than not. I do not wear my work clothes to games but I also don't go dressed. I just don't like it. For a high school game a tie isn't needed but it is nice to look professional. For an official that wants to move up this shouldn't be a problem since you will be required to wear a jacket and/or tie for a college game.

Here in Northern Virginia we have to arrive at the gym no later than 30 min before the game for Frosh and JV and 45 min to 1 hour for V. Sport coat/suit coat, tie or turtle neck for the men and business dress for the ladies. The only exception is the military uniform of the day. We can be fined for repeated violations.

Areas are different sometimes.
 

All I can speak for is my area. It is never acceptable to come dressed to games. NEVER ACCEPTABLE. I cannot think of a single situation where it is. It never was when I did Junior High Games started at 4:30. Now I am sure there are places that allow this. But if you do this in the area I live and with the assignors that I work for, you might find yourself not working as much. I am sure there are places that have different standards, just like everything else we potentially talk about here.

Peace

I hear you. Most games I do are Frosh/Soph/JV, which usually start at 4pm. In Houston traffic, and to keep from getting fired at my job, I am usually running into the gym at 3:50, and try to change, within 10 minutes. A pregame is 3 to 4 salient points, then we talk at time-outs.
It is a real incentive to move up to Varsity games in Houston, since they don't start till 7-7:30pm. For those games, you are expected to get there one hour before game time. Which means leaving work at 3:30 anyway, cause it's the middle of rush hour. :)

To ask someone to go home after work to change into clothes that will be worn for only a few minutes is just silly.

Officiating fees are paying us for the job on the floor. We should generally arrive at the games in a clean presentable fashion. Suits or sport coats are extreme overkill for any HS game. If a person wears one to their day job, keeping it on is fine, but I don't think anyone should be expected to change into a suit just to travel to the game and perhaps sit in the stands for 15 minutes.

I'd even go so far to say that someone who works construction or some other job where they might get dirty should be permitted to go to a game in construciton clothes and clean up at the game site.

Luckily, I work in an industry and for a company that cares only about the work you do and little about how you dress (except in the areas where it would be a safety issue or a direct detriment to the job).

To my games, I wear what I wore to work that day. Often, it is jeans and a knit shirt. Sometimes slacks and a knit shirt. Never a suit. Never a tie. Sometimes, it's a T-shirt.

Just an opinion.
 

I agree with just about everything you are saying. But I would not ever wear a T-Shirt to a "varsity night" contest. I might wear a pair of jeans if they are nicely pressed. But I am going there to do a job, not to hang out. You are judged often by how you look. I know teams that do not allow their players to wear jeans. I think we have to treat the contest like we want to be perceived. And wearing T-shirts and jeans in my opinion is not it during most contests

Peace

Ref with folks from the Pentagon much?

BTW, uniform of the day? Is Monday USMC? :p

I'm with Camron. We have an official who is a mechanic and often does not have time to go home before his games. He just goes right into the locker room of the school when he arrives and cleans up and changes clothes.

I wear to the game what I wear to work. It's always clean and presentable, never a sportcoat or tie. We've never had to address any of our officials about what they wear to games.

Z

Do what your area allows you to do. I would never show up to a game in my uniform. I always change when I get to the game site.

I reffed a game at a nudist colony and had a difficult time deciding what to wear to the game. They said show up in your "suit". I asked if a tie is required and they giggled and replied.."only if it is bow tie".

Upon arriving I realized that I was over dressed for the occaison. I was glad to have brought a neck lanyard to hold my whistle.

but how did you tuck your whistle in your pocket when you were in the restroom???

In my area, we are discouraged from wearing any part of our official uniform outside of the actual game venue.
In softball for example, it would not be appropriate to wear our game hat around town just because we like the way it looks.

JMHO, but I wouldn't wear any part of my game uniform outside of the actual game.
Maybe it's just our local thing here, but I think it looks like we were/are hurried.

Actually, we do. RecRef and I are in the same association. I usually dress "business casual" since that is the dress code for work. I sometimes wear a coat and tie, but usually dress in either a sweater or coat/mock turtle neck type of shirt. For rec ball, it is just shorts and t-shirt and I put the stripes on at the game site.

I have a question along the same lines. What do you guys where to camps? I will say that the dress for camps does vary at least from East coast to West coast. Out West it was almost always Polo, shorts and running shoes. On the East coast it depends on the camp and the total environment. I went to one camp out West where we were required to wear pants. That isn't too bad. But, for some reason a lot of guys brought and wore their college jackets! That same year guys were wearing coats and ties to our morning meetings. It got to the point where one of our speakers mentioned it and the fact that he didn't think it was needed.

I'm in the military and I do not like to go to a game in uniform. I have only had to do this once in many years and I didn't like it then. I have my own opinions of wearing my uniform aside from officiating plus I wear Battle Dress Uniforms (BDUs) most of the time and I don't like to look like a bush all the time :) I think the bottom line with dress is high school is different than college. High school games should be treated with as much respect as possible. If you are a good ref and you dig ditches then I don't see why someone would hold it against you to come to a school in your work attire as long as it is reasonable. If you can dress in business casual and would like to then there shouldn't be a problem with that either. However, when you sign that contract to work college games it is a different story. It should be coat and tie or turtle neck. I don't like turtle necks so it is always coat and tie for me. My mentors also told me to where a coat and tie when taking a picture for a roster so on more than one occasion I have looked like an idiot in a store with a shirt, tie and jacket on my top half while wearing shorts!

I do not think we should go to our games dressed. It is uncomfortable for me. Where are we going to go during the JV game? I would not sit in the stands with my uniform on. It is already bad enough that some fans know who we are with our street clothes on.

For those who don't know (not suggesting Dexter is one), uniform of the day essentially means the military uniform required for the section you work on any given day. In my experience with the Air Force, it could either be dress blues, BDU's, or cook whites.
Although if I were to ever ref a game after a day in military uniform, I'd most likely take a change of civilian clothes with me to work to change into before I left the base.

Around here, most middle school AD's look confused when you ask them for a place to change. They then point you to the bathroom, and I end up putting my bag behind the scorer's table. Same thing with summer leagues. I much prefer the ability to change clothes and make it less obvious that I'm the ref when I'm not in the gym. I guess I just prefer the low key approach.
High school stuff (my experience is sub-varsity) I always change on site; and try to wear slacks or khakis with a collared shirt.

Adam

Wow, this is an interesting thread to read! As not quite a high school varsity yet, I personally go straight to the games dressed. The reason is that I work a significant distance from the schools/gyms that I would officiate at. Traffic is pretty bad where I work and so I dress right after work and try to hustle to the gyms the best I can.

With that said, the veteran varsity officials I know usually were fairly causal clothes before the game and change as they get to the gym.

I've never heard of our assocation ever having any requirements as to what to wear before games. However, most of the senior officials tend to come in business casual and that seems to be a generally accepted standard.

[Edited by coach41 on Jul 28th, 2004 at 12:43 PM]

Never mind the association, around here it's illegal to go anywhere, if not dressed...

I work in the construction industry (in sales) and I wear jeans, a golf shirt and work boots to work every day. This is also what I wear to my games because I live in a major metropolitan area and there simply isn't time to go home and change my truck doubles as an office so there really isn't anywhere to change. Most of the time my clothes are clean, but there have been occasions where my clothes were really dirty.

To this point I don't think it has hindered my officiating career. I officiated at the V level in one state, moved to another and I officate at the V level here too. The only real thing that has affected my schedule is my ability, not what I wear to games.

Now for college games, all of the leagues I work have dress codes and I adhere to them very strictly. If my HS leagues were to change, I would change with them, but it would be a challenge.

Rainmaker,

Yeah, I guess it would rather silly if officials came to the game with no clothes on. :D

And yes, i caught on to what I wrote and edited it to more accurarely reflect what i was trying to say. :)

FrankHtown
 

Hey Frank... shoot me an email off the board. My account should allow it.

While I am at it I should contribute to the thread. The only time I showed up to a game dressed is a middle school game that was 5 minutes from my house. And even though I showed up 20 minutes before the game as opposed to 30 - with my shirt in another bag and the association T-shirt over my Under Armor shirt tucked in at that! Any other time than that - unless I was doing a private school game where I was told there would be no place to change (has happend!) i showed up in street clothes. Usually jeans, and a nice shirt, Granted I am still at the sub-varsity level. If I was doing a friday night set I would usually thrown on some casual khakis that I have, always with dress shoes or dress boots. It also depended on who I worked for on said nights. If i worked for one ofm y assignors it was always khakis with a nice shirt. Interestingly enough the coaches read me as more seasoned despite this being my first year... rode me alot less than my partners who would show up 5 min before game in full uniform with a blue Nike jacket on. But i saw that school alot due to the size of that area. If I worked for the main chapter in the area things are little less strict for sub-varsity. They're happy if you show up period but being younger I tried to appear as nicely as I can, and BBall junkie and Brad will tell you- thats hard for me to do :-P.



[Edited by ace on Jul 28th, 2004 at 01:50 PM]