Hi,

I just wanted to introduce myself to this forum, which I am finding very helpful. I have just begun to officiate in our city/county/private school league, having officiated my first game last Friday night. I am about to begin my fourth year of officiating in my church's youth league, and third year as a coach.

I had wanted to post before my game on Friday, asking for any helpful suggestions, but I didn't have time. I was able to wrok about 6 scrimmages before the season started, and that proved very helpful. In the church league, we were supposed to be following 'high school rules' with minor exceptions. Well, when I started to study the book, I found out differently. If anyone can share experiences with moving from a rec league to a high school league, that would be great.

One more thing - I am the only female official in our league of 50+ officials. I'm wondering if this is common in other areas. I love the game of basketball, and love to officiate, and am just happy to be able to do what I love and would love it if the subject never came up. But I am not naive enough to think that everyone will be accepting of a female official. Any thoughts about this? or experiences?

Thanks, and I look forward to your responses!

Dayna

Welcome to the forum! My advice is don't take any crap from the coaches. They will probably think they can get away with a little more. But don't let them. Keep at it and don't give up and good luck

Welcome, Dayna! We have about 70 officials in our local association and the number of women who officiate basketball in this group is ... one. Very sad. I have been trying to figure out how we can attract more female basketball officials (for some reason, our region has a pretty healthy number of female volleyball officials...). Any suggestions would be welcomed.

For what it is worth, the one female who does work in our area is pretty good and from observation, from talking to her, and from working with her, my sense is that her job is made a lot easier when and where she has the trust and confidence of her partners. That's most of the time, but there are a few holdouts who never quite seem to get it.... Although it is "their" problem, it unfortunately does affect this official's experience.

Best wishes. And, thank you.

You have a league of officials that are at least 50 years old? Cool.

Somehow I knew that '50+' was going to have an additional meaning!

Also, thank you for all your replys!

Dayna, in my association, we have about 125 officials. I think we have 5 women in that group. Two are very good college officials (one is a D1 official). The others are relatively new to the HS ranks.

Best of luck in your transition from rec to HS ball. It's worth the journey. Keep checking in here, too. It'll make the journey a little easier. Maybe. :)

My association has over 60 officials. We have between 10 and 15 female officials. 2 Ref University ball regularly and a few others are working up the ranks to get to that level.

Basically in my experience as a female official you have to excell in your position. Not everyone (partners or coaches) will trust you on your first time out but be confident, make the calls, and relax, they'll come around (at least hopefully most of them will).

Get out as often as you can. Find a mentor. Ask lots of questions. Go to camps. Most of all - have fun!!

When I coached a youth league team in Northern California, it seemed that about a fourth of the officials were women. It wasn't unusual for us to have an all female crew.

For the high school level, it is more than one or two, but it still is not the norm. Getting there, I suppose, but not there yet.

When I used to see only one or two women officials about 10 years ago, I noticed that coaches tried to work them mercilessly and that they were reluctant to T. It made me wonder how much support they had from their male partners.

The good news is that this B.S. has ended in our area. I took about a 7 year break from coaching, so I'm not sure how long it took.

Fight the good fight and don't take any crap.

My chapter has between 480-500 officials and I think there can't be more the 15-20 women. Never have figured out why.

Christina, I think this is true of anybody, male or female, unless you already have established a good reputation. It's tough to trust somebody the very first time you work with them, especially if it's a newish official.

One big thing, coming from a rec league backround myself, I tend to call a lot of ticky-tacky fouls, I was told in my first V game to let them go, and only call advantage/disadvantage.

That's just from my experience, hope it helps you out, and good luck.

Hi Dayna,
Welcome. The brain power on the forum can be amazing! (However, I am very easily amazed)
tjones1 is right. I worked with a woman a few games last year and many of the coaches would push her in ways that they don't try with us. Don't want to sound sexist, but it's true sometimes.
My advice is that if you are new and a coach is trying to get away with more, let your partner intervene for you. But make sure the coaches know you are for real and aren't taking any bull. Don't cop an attitude, just be as professional as you can be. Good luck and have fun!

Thanks for all of the encouragement. The officials that I have worked with so far have all been great. And that's just it...I will go out and officiate to the best of my ability, knowing that I will learn each time. If there is an issue with something other than my officiating performance, well, that's not my issue and it won't be solved on the court.

My advice to you would be:

1. Know the rules forward and back.
2. Ref advantage-disadvantage.
3. Hone your people skills. You'll need it when dealing with coaches and the table.
4. Keep a journal and make a note of what you did right and what you did wrong.
5. Work to make your mechanics perfect. If you look like you know what you're doing (even if you don't) they'll believe your calls.
6. If you don't know how to apply the rule don't call it. After the game find out how.
7. Have an experienced Ref. watch you. Don't take his/her critique personally.
8. You will miss calls (weall do) forget about it and try to get it right next time.
9. Do as many games as time allows especially at the lower levels this is where all the weird plays happen.
10. Above all have fun.

Good luck and have a great season.

But if you have a 6'5" fairly built Male official and a 5'6" slight built Female official - who do you think is going to get more questions/retorts/comments....

I do agree with you tho. I found I received more opposition as a female when reffing Campus Rec at the university. There are a lot more ego-centric guys there.