Officials Column that I wish to share

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally posted by DTS
Jurassic,

Thanks for the input, I don't take offense to anything. Truth again, interviewing officials from your age bracket, they all say the same thing, "Be seen and not heard." It's a generation gap thing, and I do listen. I've taken your comments to heart, rest assured, so thank you sir. Share a story or two from your infinite experiences so that I may learn from my lack thereof.

David, OK, I'll share something with you from my infinite experience. It sureashell ain't a generation gap thing. It's the way it is! If you take a "know-it-all" attitude into your games, your meetings, your writing, your website, etc., then you will quickly get a "know-it-all" reputation. And that type of reputation can be career suicide if it's taken up by the people responsible for your future advancement- your evaluators, assignors, people who run the camps that you go to and also recommend officials to college assignors, etc. And the partner(s) that you're dumping on in your web site may be your assignor's brother-in-law too. You can't be sure that they're not saying the exact same things about you that you're saying about them either, can you? Chill. Ask questions. Filter out what you think can help you, and dump the rest. But spend 90% of your time listening and 10% of your time talking. And when you're talking, don't waste time blowing your own horn. I hate to have to be the one to tell you, but nobody cares whether you contribute to Referee Mag or how great an official you are. You will be judged on the floor by how well you do your job. You will be judged here strictly by your contributions, and not by your resume or your experience. My "infinite experience" doesn't get me a pass here either, and that's the way it should be.

Off the soapbox. Good luck with your career. Always keep reaching!