Good-bye, Mark Padgett!

[Richard Ogg]

Originally posted by Mark Padgett
.... This is a youth league for 3rd thru 8th graders and we use mostly high school kids as referees. I will spend most of my time training and evaluating them, and might get in a few games on Saturdays if we are short of refs (or if we have a problem coach - heh, heh). Since the league only goes for 10 weeks, the most games I would do in a year is 30, although I plan on doing only about 12 or 15. ....

Mark, I certainly hope you will continue to visit this board on a regular basis. I too have profited from your insight.

I'm intrigued by your rec league. It is our church league, with separate divisions for boys and girls, ages 8-14, that got me into the ref'ing business. When my son out-grew my knowledge and coaching ability, I started helping with the refs. We too use mostly high school kids as referees. There were a couple of local ref's who helped me, and eventually I joined the association to learn better what I was doing. We begin each season with a 3-hour clinic for the high schoolers, and go on from there.

I would like very much a separate discussion board for just such leagues. How do you train your kids? How do you incent them? With this type of ref'ing skills and ages, how do you teach them to handle the occassional upset parent (coach)? What rules modifications do you use? Etc. etc. We can do this on this board, but a separate one might be better. I'm sure there are others in our same place of service and a good regular exchange can only help. What do you think?

Thank you again, and I'll be in touch!