Can anyone provide insight on the latest compensation rates expected for officiating on each level of play.
- college
- high school
- recreation leagues

Too many variables to answer this question. Why do you ask?

***** <I><B>college</B></I>
<UL>
<LI>
lots (with the exception of real small colleges and JC)
</LI>
</UL>

***** <I><B>high school</B></I>

<UL>
<LI>
not much
</LI>
</UL>

*****<I> <B>recreation leagues</B></I>

<UL>
<LI>
even less
</LI>
</UL>


Z

[Edited by zebraman on Sep 10th, 2004 at 09:24 PM]

Compensattion
 

Come on now... you can work with a pay range. In Houston I find a great desparity in compensation. It seems the higher the level of competition, the lower the compensation.
JC- $100 plus % of gate

High School- $50 per game

Rec Leagues- $15-$25

The JC games can be uncompensated travel time and High school games can easily be 3 hours of your time and more if there is travel. But the rec leagues are 50 minute games and you get four in one night. Why do I want to travel 4 hours to do a JC game when I can make more at the local YMCA down the street in less time the same night?

I just wondered if anyone else was experiencing the same dilemma?

Different strokes for different folks.
 

abode,
This is not a choice with which I struggle.
I prefer the quality of the game to the amount of income.
mick

Re: Compensattion
 

Nope.

If anyone out there wants to trade their junior college/HS varsity (heck, at this point, I'd take a good JV game) games for my intramural basketball schedule, I'm willing to do so! I'll even let you work frat night. :p

I've had several veteran officials (most of these guys are tired of the politics involved in HS assignments) adamently tell me that they would rather take 4 $20 rec league games that are near their house, that they can show up 10 minutes before tip and leave immediately after than to take 1 HS $54-58 varsity game that by the time you add travel and pregame to it's pretty much same time involved. They are "attempting" to influence me to follow just the same as if they can keep the local association from the newer (me in my 4th year) refs from working HS. Their thought is that if there is such a shortage, then scale will be forced to raise.

I agree with the post that I prefer the quality over the $ and I want to move up eventually as high in the college ranks as possible.

I know in HS most places compensate for travel. In Texas, Driver makes federal mileage. Last year it was .35 / mile. I know all college pays mileage and hotel and airline expenses depending on need. Under that senerio, I don't mind driving 100 miles just to call a Junior High game. I just don't like being the guy in the passenger seat.

Those veterans who would rather take the rec game over the varsity game are the ones that have given up on themselves. They just do it for the money. They won't attend camps. They won't attend meetings; and they won't do what it takes to become an official that can call that high level varsity or college game.

[Edited by Tim Roden on Sep 12th, 2004 at 02:27 PM]

Veteran officials who are working rec ball rather than HS and using "politics" as an excuse.....I've heard that before. The refs I've heard that from before are the ones who never made it to the top (either from lack of ability or lack of hard work) and have become bitter and full of excuses. The fact that they would try to influence an official in his/her 4th year from wanting to work up to varsity says a lot about them too. Stay away from those guys and align yourself with successful officials.

Z

In general, I agree with you Zebe, but there are exceptions. There are folks who do a great job at rec, and have other passions. They do it because it's easy money, but they also give something back. I've known a few, and have learned a lot from them.

You can tell the difference by the tone in the voice when they talk about high school and college games. If they growl, "Aww, it's a bunch of crap" you know they didn't get along with the in-crowd, and probably alienated an assigner or two. But if it's, "Yea, hs can be a lot of fun, if you have the time and energy to devote to it" then you know they are basically fine with the situation -- it was their choice.

Re: Compensattion
 

Considering one is fun and the other is a waste of time, I would rather travel 4 hours to do the fun game. No dilemma here.

Peace

When someone starts complain about politics, watch out!!! There is politics in everything you do. The issue at hand here is understanding the system and work that system. But when you never attend camps, never attend meetings, never handle this as a professional, you are going to have something to complain about. There is a reason some officials will never make it. Not everyone is going to be successful in other professions, officiating is not any different.

Leave those clowns alone. ;)

Peace

You're right Rainmaker... but the original post alluded to politics and also that they were trying to encourage this fairly new official to stick with rec ball too. Add those two together and it sounds like bitterness and excuses rather than passion and giving back to the game.

Z

Z,
What does your phrase mean. Is that so important?
mick

Re: Re: Compensattion
 

Rut, I agree with you that I'd rather travel to do a college game than do rec ball. However, I think there are some people who would say making $250-$350 in a weekend is not a waste of time. Just the other side of the coin, that's all.

To answer the original question, these figures are for Massachusetts:

HS: $44 (JV), $62, (V) (2-whistle)
JC: $100, no travel (2-whistle)
NCAA (all figures for 3-whistle): $110 plus travel (D3), $135 plus travel (D2). D1 pay varies by conference.

I agree with Tim and filter out what I don't want to hear. I hit 3 camps and worked all summer long and had specific things I wanted to focus on every time out. My plan is to move up. All that said, those chances to work bunches of rec/ MAYB/ AAU/ etc in a weekend and a pocket full of money will be mixed in. All I was saying originally is that; if I'm a disserning adult that is getting told this, how many of the younger guys take this info as gospel. Some of these guys, for whatever reason, are trying to sabotage the association.

Re: Re: Re: Compensattion
 

I was not using everyone else's point of view for this statement.

There are people that think Anna Kornakova(sp?) was the best looking on the Women's Pro Tennis Tour. That does not mean I have to agree with them. ;)

Peace

You've never heard that before Mick? It can mean different things to different people. For me, it means that the game of basketball was very, very good to me as a kid. Kept me out of trouble, gave me something to do, gave me some confidence that I would have probably been lacking otherwise and gave me a couple years of free college.

Because of that, there are times that I do some officiating (volunteer when I really don't feel like it or sometimes paid officiating for a league or tournament that isn't my cup of tea) because of my love and respect for the game and a certain sense of obligation I suppose. In other words, I don't always have to be "fairly compensated" for my time because I feel like the game of basketball has given me far more than I've given to it in my lifetime.

Z

YU.P., Z.
You have passion.
That's a good thing.
Keep it up.
mick

In the Cincinnati area there seems to be a trend to hold rec ball fees down. People expect you to run for an hour for $14.00 but act like you are being paid D1 money.

For me, I made the concsious decision to focus on high school ball so I generally dont work rec during the season. This isnt for financial reasons as obvioulsy I could make far more money working rec. Its about the quality of play and the challenge.

I may work some AAU or rec ball out of season but in general, when I take these games, I try to balance fun (as in, if a buddy calls I may take the gig), the money (I wont drive across town to work two games for $14 each) and the challenge (I will work something like an AAU tourney gig for maybe $15-18 a game because it should be interesting to work). If the gig doesnt meet these criteria, I'll only take gigs at $20 an hour / game. It's not that I am trying to make more money or that I am better than $14....I just think that it's time for us to start working for reasonable fees. $14 a game is 1980s pay.

Of course, the obviously arent missing me in rec land as I know a bunch of guys who will work for whatever.

Larks...You made my point
 

Larks... You made my point in reverse. I'm finding some rec leagues with ex pros and NCAA players that care more about the quality of their officials than some of the higher formal levels of play... and they are willing to pay for quality.

One of the problems I often see is that the egos sometimes rise to the higher levels of play instead of good quality and I associate that with inadequate or unstructured compensation.

Here is the breakdown for our region in Kentucky (it varies by region and we have 16 regions serviced by 14 officials associations):

Varsity $70 (2) or $60 (3) No travel

JC $75 and up

Just a comment as to why certain people take HS and others take rec leagues: Generally the people doing Rec leagues do not have the talent or the mentality to do anything else. They are out for the money and it shows. I started out doing rec leagues, but what the people that run the leagues want in an official is to keep the players happy and the money coming in. Thank god I don't have to do those anymore. The people that run them don't care about the officials. I hear those guys bragging about "doin the A league at such and such", and I snicker, knowing they can't handle anything else!

Re: Re: Re: Compensattion
 

Of course this is personal preference. I am sure some people think getting tattoos and piercing all over their body is fun, but that does not mean I have to agree. I would rather work a league where I do not have to throw out people that are causing problems every game. To me that is not much fun. If it is for you, that is great. I would rather not have the aggravation and keep my sanity not dealing with those fools, then work a game just for a couple extra bucks.

Peace

Thank you for proving my point.
 

If there is that much stress involved, I would rather pass.

Peace