High School Referee Rating system

jritchie · #1 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 22, 2004, 12:27pm

In kentucky our rating system for officials is by region. we have 16 regions and to be able to call in the state tourney you have to be in the top 3 in your region to be eligible to call at state. At the end of the year just before districts, the coaches have a meeting to rate officials, they give scores from 50 to 80, 80 being the number 1 official in the region, then the assignor has 20 points to give his ratings and they average them together to get a total and that is how it is done in all our regions...due to politics and coaches having something against a referee, this system is ridiculous...a great ref could get a couple 50's from a couple coaches and ruin his chance to go to the state tourney....how do ref's get rated in other states????? they are trying to find a fair way to do it, but are not getting it done!!!! I have been working my butt off trying to get there, but do to some of the problems mentioned...it's nearly impossible!!

ChuckElias · #2 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 22, 2004, 01:52pm

In the immortal words of Mickey Crowley (heard at camp), "The only thing worse than not having a rating system is having one."

zebraman · #3 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 22, 2004, 02:22pm

Around here, coaches have NO say and it seems to work pretty good. Peer rating and sometimes evaluators have some input (ex-officials). Coaches are just too biased from their own games to be able to be objective (let alone that they know very little about reffing positioning, philosophy or call selection). If coaches get input to officials, then officials should be able to fire a couple of coaches per year.

Z

JRutledge · #4 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 22, 2004, 02:28pm

There is no perfect system. Not matter what the procedure is, someone will find a flaw or a problem with it. A representative from Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio all came to our state for our Officials Conference and explained their rating systems in detail. All of them had flaws and problems associated with them in my eyes. Some had one person deciding who received what games and what level. Some had certain people from a specific region decide. Some used local associations as there information gathering to decide who gets assignments. Some used coachesÂ’ ratings or state evaluators. All systems could pose problems to different people. No matter what you do, you will not make everyone happy.

Our system is a 30 point system based on official/coaches ratings, officialÂ’s rankings, Top 15 list percentiles, camp attendance and even test scores. We have plenty of people that do not like our current system, especially the old timers. Before this current system the coaches had to recommend you in "regional seeding meetings" to determine who is eligible for the playoffs. If no coaches mentioned an official in one of these meetings, the state could not consider you for playoffs. Many older officials hated the change because it required more accountability instead of some coach they were buddies with just mentioning their name in the seeding meeting.

Peace

JRutledge · #5 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 22, 2004, 03:42pm

We have one individual that ultimately decides who makes the playoffs. Our Power System is just the data that is used to make those decisions. One of the Assistant Executive Directors from the IHSA Office makes that decision. We have two levels of playoffs Class A and Class AA (Big Schools) and that person decides both. One assignor playoffs for the girl's and one for the boy's playoffs. Because the girl's and boy's playoffs overlap, they do work together not to assign officials to be in two places at the same time. But if they have in mind you are going to work Class AA Girl's playoffs, you might not be available to work the Class A Boy's tournament. Geography is also a huge factor. They try not to send you really far for the Regional Level. At the Sectional and above they might require more travel. So you could be the highest ranked official in the state and only work one side of the playoffs.

Peace

dblref · #6 (**permalink**) Thu Sep 23, 2004, 05:26am

In my association (northern VA), the assignor sends a list of qualified officials to the state office and the state makes the decision. This assignor uses peer ratings, amon other things, to decide who is eligible. All varsity officials are require to rate their partners and this rating is turned in near the end of the season. Coaches have no say-so whatever in who goes. At the start of the season, coaches can "black-list" 2 officials and the assignor will not send those officals to that school unless he has no other choice.

jritchie · #7 (**permalink**) Thu Sep 23, 2004, 07:52am

i agree that coaches should have no say in ratings of officials. we have asked for it to be changed, but have had no luck. The state makes those decisions and everyone has to follow them. But i also agree that there is no way to make everyone happy! Thanks for all the info on other states ratings procedures.