I was just wondering how much most officials on this board work games (of any type). I experienced a small burnout for about two days and I know there is a ton of basketball in the DC area. I probably work an average of 6 days a week during the season. I had 6 days off in the month of January which included New Year's and two cancellations due to snow.

Is it like this everywhere?

Nah!

Two, three nights a week, tops. GV/BV doubleheader every Tuesday & Friday. Throw in a third night from time to time.

Regular season ends tonight. 3 conference tourney games next week, followed by 2 Sectional playoff games the following week. Then I'm done until AAU starts in March.

I posted about this not long ago. I had some burn out issues myself. I'll keep that in mind next year when I make out my schedule. Last night I had a good, close game with some great action (a couple of good block/charges that I'm 100% sure I got correct). My partner was a lot of fun. The coaches asked questions and did little complaining. The players were fun to be around. All in all, it just reminded me why I'm out there doing it. I'm looking forward to the last couple weeks of my season.

Live in the Boston area. I work 6 and sometimes 7 days a week. High School, some varsity some subvarsity, during the week. CYO and travel teams on the weekends. I could use a break but I'm sure after a week off I would be looking for more games.

Right now, I'm in a stretch of 10 games in 13 days. In January, I had 21 games in 31 days. I'm pretty busy. Not burned out, tho. I know I'll get plenty of rest at playoff time :(

In Houston, between HS and MS, you can work 6 nights a week, if you choose. This is from Mid-November to Mid-February. I'm in my mid 50's and 3, on occasion 4 nights a week is fine with me. Usually Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. I find though, the second day of a back-to-back, is getting more difficult without Ibuprofen.

If you are fatigued, how can you do a service to the kids and the game? We have some officials that work 6 nights a week, God bless them, but I don't know, even if I physically could do it, would I want to. Keeping the intensity up, has to be a challenge.

Since I'm new to my area and don't get to pick and choose my games yet, I took everything I could so that I can see as many Coachess/ADs/Veteran Refs/Etc as I could. From Dec-Feb, I'll work 146 games with 19 days off during that time. Almost every night I have a JV/V or I'll work a F/JV, we have GJV/GV games on Saturdays and I work a men's league every other Sundy Eve. I know this is alot and I don't plan to work this much next year. It looks like I'll be able to be more selective next year as V games are already coming in.

too much of a good thing is ...
 

I see that a lot with officials who call lots and lots of nights without a break.

Personally, I like to do two games (max 3) per week. That helps me stay fresh and keep a little balance.

I've noticed that when I have back to back nights that the second night its hard to stay focused unless its a really good game.

The next few weeks will be interesting though because we have basketball playoffs and baseball starting at the same time.

So I'll have three games basketball and then do baseball on Saturday until basketball gets finished.

(its not my choice though, we simply don't have enough baseball officials to cover all of the games)

It's way too cold for baseball so I'm not really looking forward to the first few weeks.

Thanks
DAvid

I wish I had the opportunity to work 5 or 6 days a week. Between JUCO/DII/HS I worked 16 games in January and managed to mix in a 7 day cruise in the 2nd week.
I have noticed that the only time I seem to get burned out is when I don't have many challenges.(That seems weird)
If I have good partners or easy games it seems easier for me to lose focus and get complacent. If I have some less experienced(or more experienced for that matter) that require some "extra" focus on my part, it seems easier to stay in the game.
I think tomegun is just pissin' and moanin'!!
AAR

I work an about 4-5 nights a week (Sat incl) and sometimes it can be physically tiring with work and not getting home til late at night. But, as soon as I have a couple of nights off, I'm going stir crazy.

This week I have worked every night due to official getting sick. I felt myself go brain dead the day before yesterday! But I drank an AMP last night and was good to go!

:confused: What's AMP?

wl

Work 2-5 nights/week. Ideally, 3 nights/week. I always take a few Saturday's off each basketball season to take the wife out. It keeps good balance. Oh, and I ONLY do HS or college during the season. MS & AAU are for the OFF-season!

I live in CT, from December thru early March, I work 14-21 games per week. Every day is a minimum of 2 games. Only days off are snow days and holidays. I officiate everything from youth recreational basketball thru Varsity. If you love the game, officiating is easy. The only hard part is dealing with some of the coaches and fans. It also helps to get thru the long New England winters.

An AMP is an energy drink that helps you out when you are tired! If you drink one, it should be 30 minutes before that game. I will definately help!

It seems like each person needs to find their own balance. I know some officals, young and old, that can work 5-6 nights/days a week a still be fresh the next day, while there are others that work 2 or 3 days and still need to cut back ;)
To me, the hardest nights are the ones where I have to do a JV and V game. I know there are many of you now rolling their eyes, thinking, "What a wimp! That's all I do every night!". But the hardest part for me is not the physical part, but the mental part at the beginning of the second game. You get into a certain flow of the first JV game, get used to the players, etc. When you come out for the second V game, the uniforms are the same colors, but the players are (usually) faster and better, and the game is entirely different. It's hard to switch gears for those first few minutes. I've found myself more drained at the end of those nights than at the end of a single game double-overtime nail-biter. In fact, 3 nights a week of those double games is enough for me, while I can easily survive 5 nights of single games, even at the college-level.

This is fun
 

I manage a golf course so the winter months are pretty much free to do what I want to do.

Started this season on Nov 18th have worked
Nov 12 games on 9 days
Dec 23 games on 17 days
Jan 35 games on 23 days
Feb 10 games on 8 days so far.
80 HS games on 57 day thru 2/11 with only about 2-weeks left then I'll have to go back to the course and get ready for the season there.

And I'm having a blast doing them.

I actually work less during the season.

I usually average 3-4 days a week meaning anywhere from 3 to 6 games, if a MS or frosh/JV doubleheader gets thrown in.

During the offseason I tend to work 4 to 6 days a week and anywhere from 12 to 30 games. It's pretty common for me to work 600-800 games a year.

I had a July and August a few years ago where I did 114 and 110 games. I had 6 days off in 2 months and 3 of those were because of the 4th of July.

The season IS MY VACATION. :D

4-5 nights a week. Maybe 6 if I'm lucky. :)

During Basketball season, I work 2-3 nights a week. During the Summer , I work about 4 nights a week.

This season I hope to be working somewhere between 200-300 games.

95 high school games so far this season with seven more scheduled in the next two weeks and then hopefully one playoff game. This will be my busiest year so far.

I won't do any CYO or junior high games. Too disorgnaized and not enough supervision so I stay away from those. I also want to be at my best for the high school games I do.

During the off season I do high school only only, somewhere between 75 and 100 games. Anymore would be too much. I want to stay in shape, work on my mechanics and judgement, but not get burnt out. Besides I coach girls volleyball in the fall and boys volleyball in the spring.

I don't do any AAU ball. You could not pay me enough to work AAU.

Usually work Tuesday and Friday. Some nights are frosh at 1 school and varsity at another, frosh/jv double-header, or varsity double-header. I have stopped working rec games because I need a couple of days between working (knee going bad) and this might just be my last year of officiating. I used to work as many games as some of you do, but my age is catching up fast!

Obviously, everyone has a different idea about what is the right number of games. For me, 4 games a week (HS and small college) would be ideal. Unfortunately, the schedule makers don't always cooperate. Three weeks ago I had two games over nine days and tonight I will be doing my 9th game in ten days.

The only thing I refuse is doing more than two games in a day. I did 4 games in one day once, I did not enjoy it, neither did my wife.

Jay

From November to March I work basketball. From April to August I work baseball. From late August to November I work football.

I get calls to work off-season basketball, but I turn them all down. One sport at a time suits me just fine. And it usually gives me a full month off between sports so all the sore spots go away for a while.

I may do a camp or two this season, which is an exception to my rule :)

--Rich

AAR, I'm not complaining about working, I'm a basketball junkie. I actually don't work as much as some in the DC area. I just want to keep improving since the most important time for officials, IMO, is coming up. The camps for me is kind of like the season for HS players. I want to "win it all" at the camps I go to so I want everything to be tight. I already plan on resigning, at least partially, from one organization I work for next year. The result will probably just be more games from someone else instead of less games overall. The tough officiating competition in the DC area makes me feel obligated to be out there working in order to move up.

I also live in the DC area, and there are lot of games at any given time. I normally work at least 5 days a week. I felt like I was burning out. After a couple of days of rest, I was calling for more games. I agree with Tomegun, that this is an important time of year for officials.

Tom: It was nice to see that you graced us with your presence on Friday at Uno's. Sorry that the old man's dentures were in the sauce!

brian134. Do you and tommegun call for board 12(?) in DC? Do you also call in MD?

Dblref: We both work for 134 in MD and also a couple of other associations in the DC area. Tomegun does work for 12 in DC.

And I used to work for bd. 12 too! Funny how tomegun and I made the DC/Nevada switch.

I am soooooooooooo glad that you started this thread and wrote that post, Tom. I have been trying to get the guys out here to understand just how much ball and at what a high level there is available back there. Having never experienced it, most of them just don't get it. A season back there really amounts to about 2 1/2 of experience out here IMO. Bd. 12 alone had about 170 schools and over 300 officials when I was a member.

I know that there were times when I was working basketball seven days a week for a couple of weeks straight when I lived back there. Some nights I would even work an early game in the inner high in DC and then go out to MD and do a late game. It was crazy! Crazy, but a blast.

The downside was that I did hurt my achilles one year there, and I am convinced that it was due to overwork. I was in my mid-twenties and very physically fit, but I didn't stretch out well because I was young and stupid and I often had to come to games straight from work. I had to miss almost an entire winter HS season to recover. A real downer. So if you are going to continue to push yourself at this current pace, the please make the effort to train and take care of your body.

I know what you mean about having a ton of games to do. We cover the Northern and Northwestern Regions of VA plus girls Independent School League (private schools). We have something going on every night but Sunday. We cover about 90-100 schools plus 12 rec leagues.

I work 3-4 nights a week-that's plenty!!! I live in Minnesota and one of my partners took a cruise in the caribian the 2nd week in January-Said it did a world of good for his "Burn Out". Wonder if the NFHS/NCAA would consider taking a week off in January so we could all vacation.